HomeNewsBriefWhy is Latin America the Only Region with Rising Homicide Rates?
BRIEF

Why is Latin America the Only Region with Rising Homicide Rates?

HOMICIDES / 13 NOV 2013 BY NATALIE SOUTHWICK EN

A new United Nations report has found Latin America is the only region in the world where overall homicide rates increased between 2000 and 2010, with the violence rates recorded reflecting changes in drug trafficking and the region's underworld.

Latin America and the Caribbean saw more than one million total homicide victims during the decade, according to the 2013-2014 UN Regional Human Development Report (pdf) released November 12. While homicide rates in other regions decreased by as much as 50 percent, in Latin America rates rose by 12 percent.

Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Venezuela all had homicide rates of over 30 per 100,000 residents in the most recent year with available statistics, while Mexico, Brazil, Panama, Ecuador, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic had rates of over 10 per 100,000.

Homicide rates in many Latin American countries stabilized or even slightly decreased from 2005 to 2011, but a few outliers accounted for the overall rise. Honduras' homicide rate rose steeply, from significantly under 50 per 100,000 in 2005 to 86 per 100,000 in 2011, according to a UN official, while El Salvador's fluctuated between 50 and 75 in those years, before dropping sharply in 2012. Murder rates also rose during much of the time period in Mexico, Panama, Argentina and Bolivia.

InSight Crime Analysis

murder

The rising homicide rates in Latin America are inextricably linked to organized crime and the drug trade. Over the time period studied, the sharpest rises* were recorded in Mexico, where rates sky rocketed after 2007, and Central America, where the homicide rate nearly doubled. In Mexico, the rise coincides with then President Felipe Calderon's frontal assault against the drug cartels, while in Central America it tallies with changes in trafficking routes, with the region now the principal route for cocaine moved into the United States. Some of the region's traditionally less violent countries, such as Argentina and Bolivia, also posted significant rises that cooincide with their increasing importance to drug trafficking groups.

However, it is not transnational drug trafficking alone that contributes to rising violence. The last decade has also seen street gangs such as Central America's maras expand their influence, which, as shown in El Salvador, are the principal drivers of violence in some countries. Many countries have also witnessed an explosion in violent criminal networks focused on lucrative domestic crimes such as micro-trafficking, extortion and kidnappingMeanwhile, ongoing guerrilla and insurgent movements in countries including Colombia, Peru, Paraguay and Mexico have also continued to fuel violence.

A detailed breakdown of Venezuela, which has a dire lack of reliable violence statistics but is known to have exceedingly high murder rates, was absent from the report.

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

GULF CARTEL / 28 JUN 2023

US policy has exposed migrants to a greater risk of being killed, disappeared, and kidnapped in isolated stretches of the…

FENTANYL / 10 JAN 2022

The hideous levels of violence plaguing Zacatecas, exemplified by ten bodies abandoned in a van outside the governor’s office, are…

BRAZIL / 26 JUL 2023

On paper, Latin American governments are fighting back against the shark fin trade. In reality, the massacre continues.

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…