Latin America Security By the Numbers Share This /

Compiled by WOLA Intern Laura Fontaine.

• The prosecutor for the defense of human rights in Nicaragua came out with numbers that said that the Nicaraguan National Police has faced 1,334 complaints of human rights violations, the highest of the six public institutions with recorded complaints. The judiciary system had 210 complaints, the penitentiary system had 80, the Ministry of Family, Youth and Children had 75, the Public Ministry had 64, and the Ministry of Education had 56.

• Approximately 4,000 demonstrators gathered in Peru on June 17th to protest the development of a $5 billion gold mining project proposed by the Newton Mining company.

• São Paulo, Brazil police killed one suspect for every 229 arrested in 2012. By contrast, in the United States in 2011, police killed one suspect for every 31,575 arrests.

• Mexico reports 7,128 organized crime-related homicides during the first seven months of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration.

• Between 2005 and 2011 approximately 17 million pounds of marijuana were seized by U.S. Customs agents at ports of entry along the U.S.–Mexico border.

• A survey about citizen security perceptions in Mexico found that 27% of citizens consider the country’s security situation to have improved. This was a 19% increase since the survey was last conducted in October of 2012.

• A new law enforcement agency in Mexico, National Gendarmerie, will have 5,000 members. This group, which is considered a separate division of the Federal Police, will assist states “that do not have an effective, reliable police agency today,” said Interior Minister Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong.

• A study conducted by the Center for Economic Research and Education (CIDE) of Mexico revealed that 60% of Mexicans would prefer for Mexico and the United States to form one country if it meant they would have a better quality of life.

• In the first half of this year Mexico deported nearly 17,000 Salvadorans for residing illegally within the country. The United States has deported 9,072, making the statistic over 26,000 between the two countries.

• In Mexico, it is estimated that 60% of workers, about 30 million people, work in the informal sector of the economy.

• “The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) released the results of the annual U.S. Government estimate measuring cocaine production in the Andean region. According to the new estimates, there has been a 41 percent drop in potential pure cocaine production capacity in the Andes since 2001, from an estimated 1,055 metric tons potential pure cocaine production at its peak in 2001 to 620 metric tons in 2012. The latest estimate is a 10 percent reduction from the previous year. Since 2011, the potential production of pure cocaine has dropped from 305 metric tons to 290 metric tons in Peru; from 190 metric tons to 175 metric tons in Colombia; and from 190 metric tons to 155 metric tons in Bolivia.”

• A report by the National Center for Historical Memory, a government institution in Colombia revealed that between 1970 and 2010, more than 39,000 people were victims of kidnappings. Of those, 301 were kidnapped more than once.

• Since 1990, 10,413 people have been injured or killed by land mines in Colombia. Of these, 1,019 were children. Most of the landmines were placed across the nation’s territory by the FARC and ELN guerrilla groups.

• In the past 6 months the Army of Colombia reports having found 21,155 roadside bombs throughout the country.

• Armed groups in Colombia have begun moving away from selling cocaine and instead moving toward illegal mining and the sale of gold. A kilogram of gold has a value of 19 times that of a kilogram of cocaine.

• A statistical breakdown of Colombia’s newest police chief’s first year in office stated that the police “dismantled a total of 786 criminal gangs, captured 242 drug traffickersand extradited 192 more, dismantled 40 trafficking networks, and carried out 243 operations targeting the financial infrastructures of criminal groups.”

• Between 2012 and 2015, the government of Colombia will invest a total of $2.3 billion in programs focused on citizen security. This funding will account for 2.4% of the country’s 2013 national budget and will include creating “integrated security plans” and adding 25,000 more police.

• “According to the Violence Observatory at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH), Honduras’ homicide rate could fall to 80 per 100,000 for 2013, from 85.5 per 100,000 (also according to UNAH numbers) in 2012, representing a 6.4 percent decrease, or 5.5 point drop, in the rate.”

• Murder statistics in El Salvador are rising although the truce between the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs is still technically in effect. In June 2013, there were 182 murders, up from 166 in June of 2012.

• As part of a bilateral Association for Growth agreement signed in 2011 between the United States and El Salvador, the U.S. government announced $91.2 million in funding that “will be divided between strengthening the judicial system, improving educational opportunities inside and outside schools, community crime prevention and a program called SolucionES”. The SolucionES program will also receive an additional $20 million in funding from private organizations.