Violent crime increases throughout Latin America Share This /

In the past month, reports of worsening violence throughout Latin America have almost become a daily occurrence. Last week, we wrote about the increasing violence in El Salvador and we have have reported on the increasing drug-related violence in Mexico various times. However, countries such as Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Panama and Colombia are also reporting a worrisome increase in violent crime in 2009. Below are summaries of recent reports of increasing violence throughout the region.

• Today, another report emerged indicating that drug-related murders in Mexico have surpassed 2,000 in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua in 2009 alone. For perspective, the article compares this violence to New York City - which has more than 5 times the population of Ciudad Juárez - where police project the murder rate to total 457 in all of 2009.
• In Argentina, a September editorial in La Nacion wrote that crime has been escalating to a point that it has almost become a daily part of life. "An increasing criminality is slamming the whole country, especially in the big cities. In effect, day to day, crimes of distinct characteristics and intensity take place, as if the atrocities have become something normal in the community's life." Later in the week, the same editorial board wrote that new proof indicates that the police, politicians and judges had been infiltrated by narcotraffickers and corruption. Yesterday, an editorial in Clarín's covered the continuing problem of insecurity in the Argentina and called on the government to do more to improve public security, including addressing the problem of corruption within the police force. "In the past few weeks a series of grave crimes took place. The information about the topic is scarce and fragmented. The crimes and the lack of adequate responses generate insecurity."
• Over the first weekend of October, 56 people were killed in Venezuela's capital, Caracas. The country has recently been deemed one of the most dangerous countries on the continent. A recent report by the Research Institute on Coexistence and Citizen Security (Incosec) in Caracas indicates that one person dies every 9 minutes from violence in the country, with a 29% increase in violent crime in 2009 in comparison to 2008. Another report by the Venezuelan Observatory on Violence (OVV) found Venezuela to be the second most violent country in the region, after El Salvador. While a third report by the Citizen's Council for Public Security in Mexico found Caracas to be the second most violent capital in the world, after Ciudad Juárez but before Baghdad. As in Argentina, a large number of criminal cases in Venezuela involved members of the police. Yesterday, Venezuela's Interior Minister, Tarek El-Aissami, admitted that "police in Venezuela are involved in 20% of all crimes committed in the country." As a result, President Hugo Chavez has announced that a national police force will be created to consolidate the 144 different police agencies that currently operate in Venezuela.
• Prior to winning the bid for the 2016 Olympic Games, Brazil rejected claims that security in the country's capital, Rio de Janeiro, would be a problem. Two weeks after the country was chosen to host the event, "14 people died in a weekend of violence in Rio de Janeiro, including two policemen who were killed when their helicopter was brought down by warring drug gangs." The violent weekend led Brazilian President Lula da Silva to promise to deploy federal police and allocate $60 million in aid to Rio de Janeiro. Since the weekend, 19 more violent deaths have occurred, and 10 buses were burned as a result of increasing gang violence.
• Colombia's "once infamous home to the world's biggest cocaine cartel," Medellín, is also experiencing alarming increases in violent crime and murders. According to Reuters, the murder rate so far this year is more than double that of the same period in 2008 - with 1,500 murders so far in 2009.
• In Central America, the situation is not better. A recent report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) finds that Central America is the most crime-ridden region in the world, with 33 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2008. This rate is over three times the global average. The report breaks down the murder rates in each Central American country for 2008, with Honduras leading with 58 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by El Salvador with 52 and Guatemala with 48. Panama, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica had less than 20 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, although Costa Rica, with only 11, still is 2 murders above the global average.
• Even countries such as Panama are reporting increases in criminal activity, as drug-related violence spreads south beyond Guatemala and Honduras. Samuel Logan and John P. Sullivan wrote for ISN Security Watch that in 2009 "extreme violence is also on an upswing" in Panama as the country becomes "de facto passageways, warehouses and money laundering fronts for both Mexican and Colombian organized crime."