The most recent study by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed that criminal organizations are responsible for at least half of homicides in Latin America and the Caribbean, which currently record the highest levels in the world, according to the survey .
UNODC noted that eight out of 10 countries with the highest homicide rates were located in the region. The annual average deaths, according to 2021 statistics, were 9.3 per 100,000 inhabitants in South America, 16.9 per 100,000 in Central America and 12.7 per 100,000 in the Caribbean.
Among the 16 countries that top the list are Jamaica, Honduras, Belize, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala, El Salvador, Guyana, Panama, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Ecuador.
The international body indicated that the main factors influencing the growth of violence in Latin America are clashes between criminal groups with easy access to firearms and the ineffectiveness of government actions in combating organized crime.
One of the data revealed by the study indicates that 75% of murdered victims died after being fired by a firearm. Equipment is often imported legally or illegally from the United States and Europe.
An example presented by the report is Haiti, located in the Caribbean, where it is easy to receive illegal materials originating from the United States due to weak laws controlling the flow of imports. In 2022, the homicide rate in the country rose to 18 per 100,000 inhabitants, an increase of more than 35% compared to the previous year.
In recent years, the influence of drug trafficking, gangs and militias operating across the continent have made countries more fragile in relation to violence, especially after the emergence of new criminal factions, which end up competing with each other for control of drug trafficking.
One of the most emblematic cases in South America is that of Ecuador, a country that lived in a scenario of certain stability, but which became a battlefield marked by violence, murders and the devastating influence of organized crime. In 2017, the homicide rate in the country was 5.6 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the lowest in Latin America. However, this rate has skyrocketed in recent years and reached 25.5 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022.
Another country going through the same process is the Caribbean Trinidad and Tobago, where the various gangs present have fought for territorial dominance of drug trafficking, causing the violence rate to skyrocket. Still in the Caribbean, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Turks and Caicos Islands, Saint Lucia and the Bahamas are also experiencing record numbers, mainly due to competition for drug routes.
In Central America, Costa Rica is one of the highlights in this regard. The country recorded an increase in homicides, reaching a rate of 12.8 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022, according to UNODC, with most of the violence related to disputes between drug traffickers, in particular over control of the port of Moín, in the province of Limón, an important cocaine transport hub for Europe.
Another relevant factor cited by the report is the expansion of the international drug trade and the changes in criminal geography and competition that the market has created. Record levels of cocaine production in Peru, Bolivia and Colombia have fueled violence between local and international criminal groups in neighboring Ecuador, where homicides increased by 94.7% between 2021 and 2022, according to the UN.
One strategy used by governments to try to curb criminal activity is the declaration of a state of emergency, a measure that has been observed in several Latin American countries, however it presents different results, being effective in certain locations and ineffective in others.
The prolonged state of emergency exercised in El Salvador successfully reduced the homicide rate, which fell from 17.2 per 100,000 in 2021 to 7.8 per 100,000 in 2022, according to UNODC. However, in the neighboring country of Honduras, similar security actions have failed to reduce local violence.
The same is true in Jamaica, where repeated states of emergency have been associated with accusations of police brutality, but not with sustained reductions in violence rates, with the homicide rate reaching 53.3 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022, compared to 47.3 in 2020, according to UN data.
In Ecuador, the government's attempts to control violence also failed, with the transfer of gang leaders from one prison to another, which further fueled the occurrence of massacres in several penitentiaries, marked by clashes between rival gangs.
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