A third of all murders in the world occur in Latin America - UN

27% of 458 thousand murders registered in 2021 in the world were committed in Latin America and the Caribbeanwhat’s still the most violent region on the planet for another yeardespite the fact that the general trend of this crime remains downward, with the exception of countries such as Ecuador, Nicaragua or Panama.

Eight of the ten countries with the highest murder rates in the world were in the region, according to data collected in 2021. UNODC Global Homicide Survey 2023 (UNODC).

This report states that Jamaica was the country in the world with the highest murder rate with a rate of 52.13 murders per 100 thousand inhabitants, while Brazil, with 47,722 murders (11% of the global total), according to 2020 data, was the largest in absolute numbers. However, in Brazil there are on average almost 131 murders per day, or five per hour.

UNODC reports this.

Latin America and the Caribbean not only consistently has the highest homicide rate of any subregion, but also has the highest proportion of organized crime-related homicides in the world in 2021.

The situation is very different in different countries. For example, the highest murder rate in Central America in 2021, Honduraswas seven times more than Nicaragua. In South America, Colombiathe highest that year, had a rate eight times higher than that of Bolivia.

The study notes that the region as a whole has seen a downward trend in homicide rates since 2017, especially due to a decline in Brazil.

From this year to 2021, the latest year for which complete data is available, the homicide rate across the region has dropped nearly 14%.

More or less noticeable declines were observed in South American countries such as Venezuela (60%), Brazil (26%), Peru (27%), Argentina (13%) or Paraguay (8%).

Evolution during this period was very uneven.

For our part, in MexicoThe downward trend that began in 2018 continued last year with a 10% drop.

As in Brazil, the study links this fall to the so-called “Pax Mafia” or the tendency of criminal gangs to reduce the violence they engage in once they gain control of territory.

Homicide rates also fell in Central American countries with a history of violence, such as El Salvador (71%), Belize (18%) and Honduras (5%), according to UNODC. “interventions against gangs.”

In the case of El Salvador, the study shows that the government explains this decline “Crackdown on gangs and jail more than 61,300 people” alleged gang members since the declaration of the state of emergency in March 2022.”

Arrests of gang members in El Salvador.

Central America stands out for a sharp 46% rise in homicides in Nicaragua between 2019 and 2021, with no data available for 2020.

Also striking is the trend in Guatemala, where homicide rates fell by 35% between 2017 and 2020, but that trend reversed in 2021, when the rate rose by 7%.

In Panama, an upward trend that began in 2017 ended last year when the homicide rate dropped by 10%.

The situation is even more alarming in Ecuador, where, after years of relatively low homicide rates, a 470% increase was recorded between 2016 and 2022, which UNODC attributes to “increasing fierce competition between rival drug trafficking gangs.”

For the first time in 2022, Ecuador had the highest murder rate in all of South America, at 27 per 100,000 inhabitants. That year, the number of murders doubled compared to 2021.

In Colombia, although rates are now a quarter of what they were in the early 1990s, a downward trend that began in 2018 has reversed in 2021 with a 14% rise, although figures stabilized again last year.

Countries with increases in homicide rates in 2022 included Chile (45%), Uruguay (25%), Bolivia (14%) and Costa Rica (12%).

(according to information from EFE)

Source: Aristegui Noticias

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