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Latin America the most insecure region in the world suffers 'epidemic of violence'

Wednesday, November 13th 2013 - 19:30 UTC
Full article 18 comments

Despite a decade of economic growth, Latin America is the most insecure region in the world, and an increase in crime on the continent has led to “an epidemic of violence” that is affecting growth, according to a report released by the UN Development Program. One in three Latin Americans reported being a victim of a violent crime in 2012, with the majority of the attacks being mainly robberies. Read full article

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  • Britworker

    Tut tut tut.

    Nov 13th, 2013 - 09:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura

    That is just rubbish UN, those statistics are frauded by the government and people don’t even bother to call the police to press charges nor denounce crime…
    The rise of the cartels is unstoppable. Just this week federal judges of Jujuy and Salta next to Bolivia have being calling desperately for help to the Supreme court and the Executive in Buenos Aires as they are being overrun by criminals and narcotrafficking related cases. More people are murdered in Rosario than in Medellín, Colombia

    http://www.cij.gov.ar/adj/pdfs/ADJ-0.387652001384282029.pdf

    Nov 13th, 2013 - 11:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Math

    Don't most of the criminals in Argentina come from Paraguay? I think I've read somewhere that is like 80% of the crime is commited by Paraguayans. Still, I think the article should have showed more stats about my country, Brazil, and Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia instead of Argentina and Chile which are actually among the safest.
    Brazil needs to protect its borders, apply life imprisonment and death penalty and privatize the jails.

    Nov 14th, 2013 - 04:10 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Mendoza Canadian

    Its all related to government corruption. If they can do it, why can't everyone else?

    Nov 14th, 2013 - 12:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • yd1982

    I'm just wondering: Are there also higher rates of violent crime done by mentally unstable people (e.g. paranoid schizophrenics who have inner voices telling them to kill this or that bystander) in the Latin American countries than in lower-crime parts of the world? Or is it just the robberies, kidnappings, etc. that are more frequent in Latin America?

    Nov 14th, 2013 - 01:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura

    5)Most of it is lack of discipline and the advance of drug trafficking, in my view. Crime rates are lower in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.

    Nov 14th, 2013 - 01:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • yankeeboy

    Yeah you can always say you're better off than Africa.
    Way to set a goal!

    Nov 14th, 2013 - 03:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura

    7) Any gun crazy looney on a gun frenzy today ???

    Nov 14th, 2013 - 03:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ChrisR

    @ 7 yankeeboy

    Well, when you are in the bottom of the shitter bowl EVERYWHERE ELSE SEEMS BETTER.

    In fairness a number of Argentines posting on here have warned on the unremitting rise of the drug business in The Dark Country and it has had very serious affects on crime rates in Uruguay, especially Montevideo.

    Pepes response to that is more Policia specially detailed to get hold of the criminals in the act AND legalising grass. I have some doubts as to the reasoning behind that one and I seriously think it may be a revenue raiser in terms of tax for the government.

    But whenever shit is about it’s The Dark Country behind it.

    Nov 14th, 2013 - 03:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • yd1982

    I think crime rates are just as high in South Africa (and maybe certain other African countries) as in Latin America. Johannesburg, especially, is notable for the amount of crime there is, and it competes with the likes of Caracas or Rio de Janeiro for being quite crime-ridden. Also much, much crime in certain Caribbean countries, like Jamaica.

    Nov 14th, 2013 - 04:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura

    10) I would believe there is more happy trigger in African police than in Latam?? Is there also a complacent African State that is also part of the crime…??

    In Argentina everybody in the neighborhoods knows who sells drugs, who pimps underage girls, robs, hooligans, thugs, everybody knows where the illegal yank yards, gaming, etc a but the police and the law is aware and gets a fix out it

    Nov 14th, 2013 - 06:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    My local Consul and dear friend posted this link to show that one-sided publicity can do a lot of damage.
    I can do an entirely true annotated montage of my photographic images of my local Salvador, Bahia, that express an opposite set of truths.
    The balanced picture is somewhere in between.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/11/world/americas/a-brazilian-boom-town-of-eternal-beauty-faces-its-dark-side.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

    Nov 14th, 2013 - 06:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ChrisR

    12 GeoffWard2

    But isn't that true of anywhere?

    Nov 15th, 2013 - 02:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Usurping Pirate

    @11 : Remember when Florencia had her Mini stolen ? Cristina had all the desarmaderos ( car breakers ) in San Martin and Warnes closed down in one afternoon .
    If the government wanted to crack down on crime , they could do so easily , but they prefer to rule in a state of anarchy and fear .

    Nov 15th, 2013 - 02:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    Of course, its true, Chris. But the absolutes don't lie.
    The murder rate, the thieving rate, and the rate of people being killed in cross-fire all show their truths in the statistics ... and these are close to the absolute truths.

    The NY Times portrays the perception in order to condition the US readership to the dangers of leaving the American mainland,
    and you can't blame them because the reality of Brasil is one of a seriously dislocated social structure.
    I know it is little different to all other countries in the Continent, and I have always written about it as I find it.

    I think the NYT is right to remind travellers that Brasil is a country that has moved from third world to massive urbanisation with nothing in between.
    We all lived where there was time (in centuries) to build infrastructures; not so here. And our Brasilian leaders of society have a scale of problem that is almost too vast to contemplate ... they have done the opposite of the Kennedy speech:
    “... We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things,... not because they are easy, but because they are hard;
    because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills,
    because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

    Faced with so vast a set of problems, the Brasilian leaders have consistently ducked the issues and stripped the system.

    A 'semi-condoned' and violent anarchy reigns, around which and between most of us live out our lives.

    Nov 15th, 2013 - 04:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ChrisR

    15 GeoffWard2

    I realise that your partner is a Brazilian, but surely she can see that living in Brazil MAY (not will of course) get either of you hurt or even killed.

    As you know I live in Uruguay and apart from MVD there is no real problem with muggings, etc. but I have no doubt it is coming with the spread of hard drugs by argie drug lords beyond the MVD perimeter.

    Outside of the season I have no worries about personal safety and the security of any of my property and only when the visitors arrive do things change.

    I say change, but it is only because the Policia make it known that the sharks have come in with the visitors but in three seasons here I have never witnessed any trouble whatsoever and my friends do know what is going on: but there is nothing going on!

    Perhaps it may be time to consider a change in location for both of your sakes?

    Nov 15th, 2013 - 06:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura

    14

    And now we have the drug lords contributing money for Cristina’s campaign… We have got different cartels corrupting different branches of State and having them used against each other…. So therefore you have cases like el Lauchón very recently where the Policia Bonaerense ultimate’s a top dog Agent of the SIDE

    Nov 15th, 2013 - 09:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    Thanks Chris.
    Change happens. Yesterday's issues may not be tomorrow's problems.
    Perhaps just British winter in the tropics, especially as grandchildren grow - the Belize cayes? ... Less language problems also !

    Nov 15th, 2013 - 09:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0

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