Business Insider – by Pamela Engel, Christina Sterbenz AND Gus Lubin
Drug trafficking, gang wars, political instability, corruption, and poverty have combined to make Latin America by far the most homicidal region of the world.
The region has 40% of the world’s murders, despite having only 8 percent of the population, according to the U.N.
The highest murder rate of all is in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with 169 homicides per 100,000 people, according to a study published earlier this year by Mexico’s Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice. The ranking is based on 2012 data, except for San Pedro Sula and Distrito Central in Honduras, where authorities would not cooperate and 2011 data was used.
The study does not count deaths in a war zone or cities where data was not available.
Forty-one of the top 50 dangerous cities are located in Latin America. U.S. cities also made the list, lead by New Orleans at 17th, along with Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore, and Oakland.
50) Barranquilla, Colombia had 29.41 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/El Heraldo
49) Brasilia, Brazil had 29.73 homicides per 100,000 residents.
AP
48) Belo Horizonte, Brazil had 29.74 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
47) Monterrey, Mexico had 30.85 homicides per 100,000 residents.
46) Durban, South Africa had 30.94 homicides per 100,000 residents.
AP
45) Macapá, Brazil had 32.06 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Reuters
44) San Salvador, El Salvador had 32.48 homicides per 100,000 residents.
43) Oakland, United States had 33.10 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
42) Curitiba, Brazil had 34.08 homicides per 100,000 residents.
AP Photo/Tereza Costa
41) Baltimore, United States had 35.03 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images
40) St. Louis, United States had 35.39 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Photo by Whitney Curtis/Getty Images
39) Maracaibo, Venezuela had 35.44 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Isaac Urrutia
38) Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa had 36.02 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
37) Pereira, Colombia had 36.13 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/John Vizcaino
36) Victoria, Mexico had 37.78 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Luis Lopez
35) Port-au-Prince, Haiti had 40.10 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Marie Arago
34) Goiânia, Brazil had 42.01 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Wikimedia Commons
33) San Juan, Puerto Rico had 43.25 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Photo by Jose Jimenez/Getty Images
32) Chihuahua, Mexico had 43.49 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
31) Valencia, Venezuela had 43.87 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
30) Recife, Brazil had 44.54 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci
29) Santa Marta, Colombia had 45.26 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Reuters
28) Cuiabá, Brazil had 45.28 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Denio Simoes
27) Cape Town, South Africa had 46.04 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Mike Hutchings
26) Belém, Brazil had 48.23 homicides per 100,000 residents.
AP Photo/Lucivaldo Sena
25) Kingston, Jamaica had 48.48 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Hans Deryk
24) Medellin, Colombia had 49.10 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Albeiro Lopera
23) São Luís, Brazil had 50.16 homicides per 100,000 residents.
22) Cúcuta, Colombia had 54.29 homicides per 100,000 residents.
AP Photo/Efrain Patino
21) Detroit, United States had 54.63 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Rebecca
20) Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela had 55.03 homicides per 100,000 residents.
19) Juárez, Mexico had 55.91 homicides per 100,000 residents.
18) Cuernavaca, Mexico had 56.08 homicides per 100,000 residents.
AP Photo/Antonio Sierra
17) New Orleans, United States had 56.13 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Photo by John Moore/Getty Images
16) Vitoria, Brazil had 60.40 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Lunae Parracho
15) Culiacán, Mexico had 62.06 homicides per 100,000 residents.
AP Photo/Guillermo Arias
14) Salvador (and RMS), Brazil had 65.64 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Valter Pontes
13) Fortaleza, Brazil had 66.39 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Davi Pinheiro
12) Guatemala, Guatemala had 67.36 homicides per 100,000 residents.
REUTERS/Jorge Dan Lopez
11) Manaus, Brazil had 70.37 homicides per 100,000 residents.
AP Photo/Raphael Alves-A Critica, File
10) João Pessoa, Brazil had 71.59 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Wikimedia Commons
9) Barquisimeto, Venezuela had 71.74 homicides per 100,000 residents.
AP
8) Nuevo Laredo, Mexico had 72.85 homicides per 100,000 residents.
AP Photo/Gregory Bull
7) Cali, Colombia had 79.27 homicides per 100,000 residents.
AP Photo/Inaldo Perez
6) Maceió, Brazil had 85.88 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Wikimedia Commons
5) Torreón, Mexico had 94.72 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Wikimedia Commons
4) Distrito Central, Honduras had 101.99 homicides per 100,000 residents.
AP
3) Caracas, Venezuela had 118.89 homicides per 100,000 residents.
AP
2) Acapulco, Mexico had 142.88 homicides per 100,000 residents.
AP
1) San Pedro Sula, Honduras had 169.30 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-violent-cities-in-the-world-2013-11?op=1#ixzz2m42ZSks0
Amazing the amount of homicides in Brazil. Can’t wait for the Brazil Olympic games. Watch that homicide rate skyrocket for tourists.
BRIC currencies and nations……Hmm…..
Brazil – Highest crime rate in the world
Russia – Corrupt country in the world
India – Dirtiest country and child slave labor capital of the world
China – Bribery and Business corruption capital of the world
Can’t wait for that new third world, blood money backed, NWO currency that China is scheduled to help bring in after the financial collapse happens.
yeah what’s with Brazil? And four cities in Mexico have higher violence rates than Juarez? A few years ago a bullet from Juarez made it all the way across the Rio Grande into a wall of a dorm at UTEP!
How did Chicago not make the list?
I believe they were number 51….Maybe. lol
Over 500 murders last year, more than any other city in the U.S.
How does that not rate?
Population too high?
Boy, look at all of that body armor that those cops are wearing in South America and then Taiwan breaks out those super soldier outfits a few weeks ago. Pretty soon, we are going to be seeing Robocops in the streets. I know the Military Industrial Complex already has an Iron Man suit like that in its production stages. It won’t be long now.
Gee….all of countless homicides in South America and Mexico and even in Chicago happen every day and every year and you don’t hear a damn thing about how it’s such a massacre beyond words, but when 20 unverified children and no bodies found, supposedly die in a school in Newtown, Connecticut, it’s revealed all across the globe as the greatest massacre in history.
Hmm…gee….yea….the MSM definitely doesn’t have an agenda going on here. Ya think the MSM is biased much? I think so!
Isn’t it obvious that the demographics of so many of these deaths point directly to the misguided United States policies toward drug use? There is a demand that has not gone away since 1969 and 1981, two watershed years for stupid policy decisions from two incredibly stupid and naive presidents. During the twenties and during the 60’s, it was so clear that law enforcement cannot defeat human nature. Each country in the world supports their own drugs of choice. Joe Q. Public figured out a long time ago that marijuana is not dangerous, it is no more a gateway drug than aspirin, and it is impossible for anyone to overdose on the stuff because our bodies have evolved mechanisms over thousands of years to tolerate cannabis. Mr. Public also knows that marijuana is safer than the alcohol drugs and the tobacco drugs that are legal in this mixed up country. Ask somebody from Colorado or Washington state. They are awake to this. Besides, before 1937, 150 medications were based on cannabis, and the AMA, at that time, opposed legislation making cannabis illegal. Now it is not safe for citizens of the United States to visit their close neighbor, Mexico. Our stupid and moronic drug policies have to end, not tomorrow or today, but yesterday. We are destroying other countries with these wretched policies, and our relationships with the countries of the south are just getting worse and worse. The law of 1937, put together by Anslinger, have to end so that we can go back to being a friendly presence in this hemisphere, instead of being the enabler of murderous drug cartels. Drug use is a medical issue. It should never have become a legal issue. Can it be overemphasized? “Morality” cannot be legislated. And where do bible thumpers get to decide that recreational drug use or marijuana drug use is “immoral”. The Bible gets twisted so many ways, and this is one of them. Ask the California law enforcement agencies about it. They know that the War on Drugs is a waste of money and resources, a massive waste, and history will view the War on Drugs as Quixotic stupidity. We need to fix our relationships with our neighbors from the south so that the drug cartels do not get money from the United States, money which could remain in our own economy to fix our problems at home. We have to follow the actions of Colorado and Washington state, and then we can being to repair our damaged relationships with Mexico and all of Central and South America. It is the only solution that makes sense. Nixon lost the Viet Nam War, and with Ronnie Reagan, both lost the War on Drugs a long time ago. But we are still threatening the security of our own nation with these stupid laws. Is it going to take an armed invasion of Texas and the Western States to show how misguided our policies and leaders have been? Is there really anybody so stupid as to think that the Volstead Act was a good thing? Well we have worse going on now and its taken longer to wake up from this maniacal role of those bought-off clowns we call our leaders in D.C.