According to InSight Crime, unrest gripped much of Latin American and the Caribbean throughout 2019. In its annual report, they pointed the record violence Mexico, the increased fighting among armed groups in Colombia and a rise in massacres in Honduras, by which the region was again, one of the world’s most homicidal last year. Venezuela took the first place.
In the report, Insight Crime explained that as the economic, political and social crisis wages on in Venezuela, the country continues to be the most murderous in Latin America after recording 16,506 killings in 2019, according to data from the Venezuelan Violence Observatory (Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia – OVV). The homicide rate decreased by nearly 25 percent from 81.4 per 100,000 citizens in 2018 to 60.3 per 100,000 citizens in 2019.
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While the drop is important, there is still cause for concern. In part, the reduction can be attributed to the increased territorial control of organized crime groups and the migration of small-time criminals to other countries in the region. The ongoing crisis has also limited crime opportunities, according to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory.
At the same time, an elite police unit called the Special Action Forces (Fuerza de Acciones Especiales – FAES) has targeted the country’s massive hyper-violent gangs. But the unit has also been accused of committing scores of extrajudicial killings.
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After Venezuela, the most murderous countries in the region are Jamaica, Honduras, Trinidad & Tobago, and El Salvador according to the report.
You can read the full report by this link.