HomeNewsBriefColombia Yearly Homicide Rate Sees 7% Drop
BRIEF

Colombia Yearly Homicide Rate Sees 7% Drop

COLOMBIA / 7 DEC 2012 BY EDWARD FOX EN

So far in 2012 Colombia has registered a seven percent decrease in homicides compared to last year, continuing the downward trend in violence the country has experienced in the last decade.

By December 2, Colombia’s National Police had recorded 13,209 homicides throughout the country, a drop of 921 compared to the same period in 2011, according to El Tiempo. If it continues at this rate, the country will register around 14,400 murders this year compared to 14,746 in 2011.

The country's two largest cities, Bogota and Medellin, have both seen homicide rates drop significantly, with Bogota registering 17 percent fewer murders during the first 11 months of this year, compared to the same period in 2011. Medellin recorded 321 fewer homicides for this period in 2012 compared to 2011, when the city saw close to 1,700 homicides in total.

The worst violence was in Valle del Cauca province on the Pacific coast, which accounted for some 23 percent of all murders in Colombia, according to police figures.

InSight Crime Analysis

In 2002 Colombia had a homicide rate of 70.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, more than double last year's rate of 31.4 per 100,000. If there is no surge of violence in December, then 2012 should finish with a homicide rate of a little over 30 per 100,000.

One factor likely contributing to Bogota's falling murders is the ban on carrying guns in public places, which was instituted in February and is set to run until the end of January 2013. The capital's homicide rate reached a 27-year low in September, which Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro has credited to the gun ban. Prior to the ban coming into effect, Petro's chief of staff stated that some 60 percent of murders in the capital involved guns.

Medellin, where homicides have also fallen, installed a ban on firearms in January. It is due to run for a year. 

It is unsurprising that Valle de Cauca is now officially Colombia's most violent region, where criminal cartel the Urabeños are attempting to seize the territory from rival group the Rastrojos.  The Rastrojos have been severely weakened this year with the surrender or arrest of their three top leaders, and there have been signs that the group is beginning to splinter off into smaller factions. The Urabeños, for their part, have tried to take advantage of this scenario.

Colombia has made enormous strides over the last decade in bringing its homicide levels down significantly. However, it appears that pockets of the country will continue to be heavily hit by violence as rival criminal groups and the fragments of drug cartels battle for control of the underworld.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COLOMBIA / 26 MAY 2022

Prosecutors in Colombia held a hearing with the partner of alleged drug trafficker Guillermo León Acevedo, alias "Memo Fantasma," on…

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 24 APR 2023

InSight Crime spoke to journalist Ioan Grillo to better understand gun trafficking into Latin America from the United States.

COLOMBIA / 21 MAR 2022

A top Colombian drug trafficker walked out of a maximum-security prison in Bogotá without ever being challenged, exposing deep-seated corruption…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…