MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Six our of fourteen of the world’s most violent countries are in Latin America

Gang warfare in El Salvador is the most common cause of violent deaths

Six of the 14 most violent countries in the world are in Latin America revealed the second edition of the report “Armed Violence and Development” published Thursday in Geneva by the Secretariat from the Geneva Declaration on Violence and Development, a diplomatic initiative born in 2008.

“A fourth of all violent deaths took place in 14 countries” points out the report which is based on stats dating back to 2009 and six of those countries belong to Latin America: El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala and Belize.

In these countries organized armed groups linked to drug trafficking cause mayor disasters in the area.

“This also proves that the majority of countries suffering from violent deaths are not at war”, said Keith Krause, Professor from the International and Development Studies Centre in Geneva IUHEID which participated in the elaboration of the document.

Iraq, Jamaica, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Lesotho, Centro African Republic, Sudan and the Democratic republic of Congo, complete the list of most violent 14 countries.

El Salvador is the most violent country in the world with 60 deaths per 100.000 of population.

From 2004 to 2009 more people died in violent conditions in El Salvador than in Iraq, the second most violent country in the world, followed by Jamaica.

According to the report 526.000 people die violently every year in the world, but only 55.000 lost their lives in conflict or terrorist conditions, says the report.

Likewise another 200.000 people died in conflict zones because of malnutrition or avoidable diseases.

Krause said that there have been “no major changes in the last three years”.

The Geneva Declaration was signed by over a hundred countries. Among its sponsors figures the UN Program for Development.

The diplomatic initiative has as a main purpose to support the States and civil society in its efforts to reduce in a tangible way armed violence by 2015.

Next Monday and Tuesday Geneva will be holding a ministerial conference sponsored by Switzerland and the UN Development Program to assess advances and to clearly establish priorities.