Mexico notched a record number of homicides during the first half of 2019 and is on pace to top the total for 2018, which set an all-time record.

Violence in the country has risen steadily in recent years, in part due to fight between organized-crime groups, and the continued insecurity has challenged the Lopez Obrador administration.

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Homicides in Mexico jumped in the first half of the year to the highest on record, according to official data, underscoring the vast challenges President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador faces in reducing violence in the cartel-ravaged country.

There were 14,603 homicide cases opened from January to June, versus the 13,985 registered in the first six months of 2018, according to data posted over the weekend on the website of Mexico's national public security office. Authorities reported 448 femicide cases over the same period.

Homicide cases can contain more than one victim; Mexico compiles a separate tally of homicide victims, of which there were 17,138 during the first half of 2019, in addition to 470 femicide victims.

Mexico is on course to surpass the 29,111 homicide cases of last year, an all-time high.

The number of victims during the first half of the year gives Mexico a homicide rate of almost 14 per 100,000 people for that period, the highest rate in a least 22 years, according to Mexican news site Animal Politico.

Forensic technicians at a crime scene where three men were gunned down by unknown assailants, in the municipality of Tlaquepaque, on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico, January 10, 2018. REUTERS/Fernando Carranza

For years Mexico has struggled with violence as consecutive governments battled brutal drug cartels, often by taking out their leaders. That has resulted in the fragmentation of gangs and increasingly vicious internecine fighting.

Veteran leftist Lopez Obrador, who took office in December, has blamed the economic policies of previous administrations for exacerbating the violence and said his government was targeting the issue by rooting out corruption and inequality in Mexico.

"Social policies are very important — we agree they'll have positive effects. But these positive effects will be seen in the long term," said Francisco Rivas, director of the National Citizen Observatory, a civil group that monitors justice and security in Mexico.

The complexity of fighting criminal groups is a major test for Lopez Obrador's young administration, which has vowed to try a different approach than that of his predecessor.

His administration last month launched a new militarized National Guard police force tasked with helping to fix the problem.

(Reporting by Anthony Esposito; additional reporting by Rebekah F Ward; editing by Dan Grebler)