HomeNewsBriefParaguay Homicides Drop, But Border Remains Violent
BRIEF

Paraguay Homicides Drop, But Border Remains Violent

EPP / 23 SEP 2015 BY SAM TABORY EN

New homicide figures from the first six months of the year show that the national murder rate in Paraguay has dropped, but homicide figures remain high along the country's volatile border with Brazil.  

Data released by Paraguay's Ministry of the Interior rank the country as the third least violent in South America with a murder rate of 7.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, behind Chile and Argentina. The numbers indicate a 14 percent drop in the homicide rate for the first six months of 2015 over the homicide rate for the first six months in 2014.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of Homicides 

The figures show high concentrations of violence in the states of Amambay and Alto Parana, with those provinces registering 50 and 31 homicides respectively. Both of these states are major border crossings between Paraguay and Brazil. Amambay in particular is one of the most dangerous border regions in Latin America, registering a murder rate of 66.7 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2014.  

InSight Crime Analysis 

This latest government data indicates that the security climate in Paraguay as a whole may have dodged the negative effects of a rising insurgency and a growing drug trade, but concentrated violence in the border regions suggests that the security crisis in those areas may be as acute as ever.

InSight Crime has previously suggested that violence in Paraguay could rise as the EPP grows in strength. The EPP is a relatively small insurgency when compared to similar groups found elsewhere in South America, but the organization's foothold in the international drug trade is growing, and it has been able to carry out several high-profile attacks that have thrown Paraguayan security forces into disarray. The formation of new illegal armed groups, beyond the EPP, also compounds fears that Paraguay's security situation might be deteriorating. 

SEE ALSO: Coverage of the EPP

Paraguay's role as South America's principal marijuana producer and its importance as a stop-over point along the cocaine air bridge connecting Bolivia and Peru with Brazil are both factors that have led to the development of extensive drug trafficking networks in the country, the presence of which represents an additional potential source of violence. 

Still, official statistics say the country's homicide rate is dropping. 

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

CONTRABAND / 6 JAN 2022

A string of contraband meat seizures in Paraguay is indicative of the way smuggling has undercut the country’s flagging domestic…

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 24 JAN 2023

As American-made guns continue to flood the Caribbean, heads of state are demanding that the US do more to stem the…

CARIBBEAN / 16 NOV 2021

Rival factions, secret burial sites, homicidal bosses – the ongoing trial of dozens of members of the Klansman gang in…

About InSight Crime

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…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…