MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico has surpassed 2,000 murders in a month for the first time since the summer of 2011, and had more murders in the first quarter of 2017 than in the start of any year in at least two decades, according to data released Friday.

Unlike 2011, when a bloody cartel clash in Ciudad Juarez was driving the national toll to new heights, the murders pushing the 2017 total are spread across a number of states.

The southern state of Guerrero continues to be the murder leader with 550 during the first three months of the year.

But Baja California Sur with 133 murders during the first quarter of the year had the largest year-over-year percentage increase, skyrocketing 682 percent from the 17 murders it had during the same period in 2016. A territorial dispute between the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartel is believed to be driving much of the violence in the southern part of the peninsula popular with foreign tourists.

Nationally, there were 2,020 murders in March, up about 11 percent from February. For January through March, the national total was 5,775 murders, up 29 percent from the same three months last year.

The surge in violence comes at a time when Mexican legislators are debating a national security law that would have implications for the military's continued role in domestic security. Rising violence could pose a problem for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party of President Enrique Pena Nieto in next year's presidential elections.

Other states seeing significantly more murders this year include the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, which registered 372 murders through March, up 94 percent on the same period last year. Its former Gov. Javier Duarte was arrested last weekend in Guatemala after six months on the run.

Chihuahua, home to Ciudad Juarez, is also seeing more violence this year. Its 384 murders through March are 78 percent more than the same period last year.