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Author Topic: 20 Most Homicidal Countries In The World 2014: JA, T&T, Bahamas & Guyana in list  (Read 2592 times)

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Offline Socapro

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Panama, Haiti & Belize also in top 20 list!
 
Most alarmingly T&T is actually now in the Top 10 in homicidal countries on the planet and Iraq is now relatively safer than Trinidad regards your chances of being shot dead but our government is working for us!
 
Looks like we live in one of the most violent/homicidal regions in the world and most of it is connected with the drug trade and the violence that it generates.

On a brighter note for our smaller Caribbean cousins St Kitts & Nevis, it is good to see that they have now dropped out of the top 20 so they must be doing something postive in tacking their guns and drugs problems.

The 20 Most Homicidal Countries In The World
Natasha Bertrand (Business Insider), Dec. 17, 2014, 6:10 PM


The United Nations and the World Health Organization have released their 2014 Global Status Report on Violence Prevention, which paints a bleak and detailed picture of murder and violence around the world.
 
Worldwide in 2012, there were 475,000 murder victims, 60% of whom were males between 15 and 44 years old. Half of all homicide victims are killed by a firearm, and Latin America is the world's most murderous region.
 
The global homicide rate for 2012 stood at 6.7 per 100,000 inhabitants — slightly lower than the 2011 rate of 6.9.

20. Zimbabwe

15.1 murders per 100,000 people
 
33% killed by firearms

 
Political violence has become a fact of life in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe has ruled with a heavy hand for more than 30 years.
 
Mugabe ordered the takeover of white-owned farms in 2000, causing an economic collapse that still has lingering effects. Unemployment hit 90% by 2008.

19. Iraq
 
18.6 murders per 100,000 people
 
45% killed by firearms

 
Close to 8,000 civilians were killed in the first two months of the Iraq war, according to Iraq Body Count. Since 2003, the number of civilians killed every month has lowered significantly, but this war-torn nation remains one of the most homicidal on earth.
 
The civilian death rate remained relatively low from 2008 through 2012 but has crept back up since 2013 and the rise of the Islamic State. Roughly 1,351 Iraqi civilians were killed every month in 2014.

18. Panama
 
19.3 murders per 100,000 people
 
80% killed by firearms


Panama's gangs and drug traffickers are responsible for roughly 23% of its homicides each year, according to a 2013 Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) Crime and Safety report. The country is still safer than some other Central American countries, like Honduras and Guatemala.

17. Swaziland
 
19.4 murders per 100,000 people
 
56% killed by firearms

 
One of the world's last remaining absolute monarchies has one of the highest homicide rates in Africa. That may be partly because of its low prosecution rates, the Times of Swaziland reported.
 
Pro-reform protesters frequently take to the streets demanding democracy and the removal of King Mswati III, who has ruled for 25 years and has a fortune of $200 million.

16. Namibia
 
19.7 murders per 100,000 people
 
47% killed by firearms

 
Gender-based violence is a huge problem in this coastal country in southern Africa. Women are disproportionately victims of crimes of passion, and rapes and murders of women and children are reported almost weekly, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa reported.

15. Guyana

20.2 murders per 100,000 people
 
49% killed by firearms


Guyana is one of the few Caribbean countries that are part of South America. The government has made it difficult for the average person to own a firearm legally, which has caused more weapons to go unlicensed. It's relatively easy to get handguns, machetes, and knives, according to OSAC's 2013 Crime and Safety Report.

14. Mexico
 
22.0 murders per 100,000 people
 
73% killed by firearms

 
The Mexican drug war killed more than 60,000 people between 2006 and 2012, according to a 2013 Human Rights Watch report.
 
Drug cartels have battled one another and the government for control of territory since 2006, and the results have been extremely bloody: 22,732 people were killed in 2013, compared with 14,827 in the US that same year.
 
Because there is only one legal firearms dealer in Mexico and roughly 6,700 along the US-Mexico border, 70% of the guns used by these cartels originated from sales in the US, CNN reported last year. 

13. Dominican Republic

25.4 murders per 100,000 people
 
64% killed by firearms

 
The nonprofit Transparency International ranked the Dominican Republic as one of the most corrupt countries in the world earlier this year.
 
This corruption has spawned civil unrest as citizens question why the government has failed to improve the country's infrastructure and provide them with electricity and water, a 2013 OSAC Crime and Safety Report says. The country also has a thriving drug-trafficking industry that makes it easy to exchange narcotics for firearms.

12. Haiti

26.6 murders per 100,000 people
 
36% killed by firearms

 
Severe prison overcrowding, a deadly cholera epidemic, and high levels of food insecurity are among Haiti's biggest problems.
 
Haiti lacks the resources to address these problems adequately, however, especially since one-third of its senate seats remain empty because of disagreements over a 2008 electoral law, according to a 2014 Human Rights Watch report.

11. Bahamas
 
32.1 murders per 100,000 people
 
75% killed by firearms

 
Between 2006 and 2011, crime in the Bahamas rose by 49%, the Tribune reported last year.
 
With a homicide rate of 32.1 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, this tropical paradise technically qualifies as an armed conflict zone, according to the definition provided by the World Health Organization.
 
Armed robbery, rape, and homicide are common in the Bahamas. The causes of violent crime range from gang warfare to trivial disputes. Experts at the College of the Bahamas have speculated that the exposure of Bahamian children to violence at home may contribute to their violent behavior later on.

10. Trinidad and Tobago
 
35.3 murders per 100,000 people
 
77% killed by firearms

The bodies of German couple Hubertus and Birgid Keil were found on a beach near their home in Tobago, on Nov. 22.
 
 
This small island nation off the coast of Venezuela is home to more than 100 different gangs, which have taken over virtually every aspect of society.
 
In the absence of a legitimate government, Trinidadian gangs have come to resemble governments, Insight Crime reports. Violent power battles frequently erupt between groups seeking control over the nation's cities, and anti-gang legislation passed in 2011 has proved ineffective.

9. South Africa
 
35.7 murders per 100,000 people
 
54% killed by firearms
   
 
South Africa's rate of violent crime is one of the highest in the world, and it only continues to rise.
 
The average number of murders committed each day increased from 45 to 47 between 2013 and 2014, Africa Check reports. In 2012-2013, 827 children were murdered in South Africa — more than two per day.

A lack of respect for the law and pervasive inequality — both lasting effects of the apartheid state — continue to drive violence in South Africa.

8. Lesotho
 
37.5 murders per 100,000 people
 
50% killed by firearms
   
 
Lesotho's strict gun-control laws do little to stem the flow of illegal weapons from nearby South Africa. While organized crime is uncommon, criminals are usually well armed and willing to use violence to subdue victims, according to a 2012 OSAC Crime and Safety Report.

7. Guatemala

39.9 murders per 100,000 people
 
86% killed by firearms
     
 
A common phrase in Guatemala is "En Guatemala, la vida no vale nada." In Guatemala, life is worth nothing.

Violence in this small Central American country kills between 11 and 15 people each day, and up to 98% of these crimes go unpunished, the Latin American Herald Tribune reports. Endemic poverty and weak law enforcement drive drug trafficking and gang violence, according to a 2014 OSAC Crime and Safety Report.

6. El Salvador

43.9 murders per 100,000 people
 
77% killed by firearms
     
 
Over 20,000 of El Salvador's 6 million residents belong to gangs, according to a 2014 Crime and Safety Report.
 
Gang rape is rampant and used as a weapon to terrorize communities, the Associated Press has reported. The gangs are also known to carry out murders for large drug cartels in Mexico. El Salvador's gang violence has gotten so bad it's spurred the US-bound exodus of thousands of children, who are often threatened with death if they don't join a gang, The Guardian reported.

5. Colombia
 
43.9 murders per 100,000 people
 
80% killed by firearms
       
 
Colombia's domestic conflict between the government and leftist insurgencies the FARC and the National Liberation Army has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians over 60 years, according to an OSAC Crime and Safety Report.
 
Those insurgencies, along with right-wing paramilitary groups and drug traffickers, are constantly battling for control over the production and transport of illicit drugs. Control over Colombia's lucrative coffee industry has also been a major source of violent conflict.

4. Belize
 
44.7 murders per 100,000 people
 
69% killed by firearms
       
 
This popular tourist destination has seen a steady increase in crime over the past few years, with most homicides taking place in Belize City, OSAC reported in 2013. Between 2011 and 2012, the murder rate rose 15%.
 
Two gangs, the Bloods and the Crips, are responsible for much of Belize's gang violence, according to Vice News. Gang rape is rampant, and the country's police force is understaffed and poorly equipped. As a result, many violent criminals go unpunished.

3. Jamaica
 
45.1 murders per 100,000 people
 
70% killed by firearms
       
 
While Jamaica's political system is relatively stable, economic problems including high unemployment and growing debt plague the country and have increased social tension, OSAC reports.
 
Although Jamaica's murder rate has fallen by 40% since 2009, gang violence and poverty remain serious problems, BBC reports. Since the country's most notorious gang leader, Christopher "Dudus" Coke, was captured in 2010, his relatives and rivals have battled for control over his criminal empire.

2. Venezuela
 
57.6 murders per 100,000 people
 
90% killed by firearms

An anti-government demonstration took place in Caracas on April 4 this year.
   
 
Since taking over as president after Chavez's death in 2013, the distinctly unpopular Nicolas Maduro has used heavy-handed police crackdowns to oppress people calling for his removal.
 
Venezuela's excessive use of force against anti-government protesters from February to May resulted in 43 deaths, prompting Congress to sanction the officials responsible for the violence. Maduro recently called the sanctions "stupid" and "insolent," Reuters reported.

1. Honduras
 
103.9 murders per 100,000 people
 
84% killed by firearms

Maria Jose Alvarado, the new Miss Honduras, was found shot to death in November.

 
Honduras' murder rate has been steadily increasing over the past decade. There are frequent attacks on journalists, poor people, gay people, and human rights defenders. The government routinely fails to bring the perpetrators to justice, Human Rights Watch reports.
 
Organized crime gangs routinely collude with the police, and police brutality is rampant: 149 civilians were killed by officers from January 2011 to November 2012, according to Human Rights Watch.
 
Many Hondurans have fled to the US to escape the violence, and some have been deported only to be killed upon their return. For this reason, US President Barack Obama recently granted amnesty to some 80,000 Honduran immigrants who have been in the country since 1999.
« Last Edit: December 19, 2014, 03:23:52 PM by Socapro »
De higher a monkey climbs is de less his ass is on de line, if he works for FIFA that is! ;-)

Offline soccerman

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I can't stand the fact that we made that list

Offline Sando prince

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On the positive side our Caribbean brothers Haiti is actually improving in this department.

Not surprised TnT on the list and we may be higher up the list in the future if we don't get our house in order.

Offline Jumbie

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Can someone explain : In the absence of a legitimate government



Offline Deeks

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Can someone explain : In the absence of a legitimate government




Maybe they meant to say " a government  that don't know what the hell to do again"
« Last Edit: December 20, 2014, 09:01:58 AM by Deeks »

Offline Jah Gol

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Interestingly, tourism is a rapidly growing sector in Colombia.

Offline asylumseeker

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Interestingly, tourism is a rapidly growing sector in Colombia.

Absolutely. Initially I thought this might have been due to a focus on areas on the Caribbean coast where historically there has been a measure of insulation from the issues that have plagued other parts of the country. However, their promotional videos reflect a broader focus.

As an example ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2l-FdatcTI

Note the comments regarding Carnival: "where you don't watch a carnival, you are part of it" (a dig to distinguish it from Brazil).

Other videos that are part of the campaign: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkrC0S42JiVf3EDFdfW27sg

Offline asylumseeker

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Can someone explain : In the absence of a legitimate government

Likely means that the state and government effectively lack legitimacy on the issue ... (a policy and enforcement reference rather than one directed to constitutional legitimacy) ... note that section concludes with a reference to the ineffectiveness of anti-gang legislation.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2014, 12:58:58 PM by asylumseeker »

Offline Bakes

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I think they meant "in the absence of an effective government."

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One murder every hour: how El Salvador became the homicide capital of the world
By Jonathan Watts (The Guardian, UK).




On the deadliest day of the century in the world’s most homicidal country, a gang leader and convicted murderer sits quietly in a vegetable farm and ruing what he calls a disappearing opportunity for peace.

Marvin, is a senior figure in the Mara Salvatrucha, one of El Salvador’s two biggest gangs. They have been at war with each other for two decades and now find themselves under attack by the state amid a bloody escalation of violence.

Last Sunday was, briefly, the bloodiest day yet with 40 murders. But the record was beaten on Monday with 42 deaths, and surpassed again on Tuesday with 43. Even Iraq – with its civil war, suicide bombings, mortar attacks and US drone strikes – could not match such a lethal start to the week.

For the 31-year-old gangster, such statistics are further cause for pessimism that his country is being sucked deeper into a culture of death – one that he has been part of for most of his life.

Marvin, the name he wishes to be known by, joined the gang when he was 14. Four years later, he was jailed for shooting and killing a member of the rival gang Barrio 18 because, he said, “You are crazy when you are young. You want to be important in the gang. You want to be noticed.”

After 10 years in prison, he claims he was determined to overcome the cycle of revenge attacks, territorial battles and police repression that made his country a byword for violence.

“When I came out, I saw that nothing had changed. My story was repeating itself in others that I saw with weapons, drugs and not having enough to eat,” he says.

In 2012, he was part of a 15-month truce involving the gangs, the government, police and army, that cut homicide rates by about half and even led to a handful of days with no murders at all. The vegetable and chicken farm in Ilopango is part of an outreach project that aims to take gang members off the streets.

But the tranquil setting is at sharp odds with the carnage on the streets now that the national truce is long past and a new police offensive is under way to try to stem crime that has long been out of control.

‘This country is bleeding’

It started innocuously enough in February with the relocation of jailed gang leaders to high-security prisons with fewer visiting rights and reduced privileges. Since then, the conflict escalated rapidly.

More than 3,830 people have been murdered in El Salvador this year. With one killing on average every hour, August is on course to be the deadliest month since the 1992 peace accord. On current trends, the homicide rate will pass 90 per 100,000 people in 2015, overtaking that of Honduras as the highest in the world (not including battlegrounds like Syria). This would make El Salvador almost 20 times deadlier than the United States and 90 times deadlier the UK.

“This country is bleeding and it urgently needs a tourniquet,” says Raul Mijango, a former Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) guerrilla, who was a key mediator in securing the truce. “Now we have a war between the state and the gangs.”

But this is no failed state, no dictatorship struggling with an insurgency, no rubble-strewn target of suicide bombers.

At first glance, downtown San Salvador feels more like Miami with its traffic, shopping malls and American fast-food chains. The leafy suburbs appear quiet and more likely to showcase the work of local topiary artists than to provide a stage for gang wars. Further into the countryside, the main roads are decent, the whitewash on the churches often freshly painted and democracy seemingly alive and well in the banners and flags of the FMLN and Arena parties.

But look more closely and you notice schools are protected by barbed wire and often patrolled by soldiers; private security guards carrying shotguns man the entrance to major businesses and police, armed with rifles, conduct random checks on the highways. Even in the morning rush hour, it is not uncommon to see soldiers in balaclavas riding on the back of flat-bed trucks mounted with heavy machine guns. Few people pay them a second glance.

To some extent, violence has been normalised. For much of its history, this small country has suffered levels of murder unimaginable almost anywhere else outside of wartime, primarily due to turf battles and revenge killings by the Mara Salvatrucha (better known as MS-13), and Barrio 18, which is split into two factions.

These “mara” have their origins in the gangs of Los Angeles. When El Salvador’s civil war ended in 1992, the US deported thousands of illegal migrants back to their home country. Many brought back the violent street culture and mutual hatred that had shaped their existence in California. Over the past two decades, they have grown, evolved and wreaked more carnage in El Salvador due to the weak government, dire inequality and a historical national tendency towards violence both in institutions and households.

In financial and political terms, El Salvador’s gangs are disorganised small fry compared to the mafia, the Yakuza or the narco-cartels of Colombia or Mexico.

They largely miss out on the lucrative drug trafficking business, even though most of the world’s cocaine passes through this country on its way to the US. Instead, they are left with low-value distribution of marijuana and cocaine in the local market. The rest of their income comes from robbery and extortion - often in their own low-income communities. When rival gangsters kill one another, it almost always a case of the poor killing the poor.

Fighting between rival mara has resulted in a high baseline of homicide, that went down to about five killings a day during the government-backed truce in 2012-13 and has now spiked up dramatically this year as a result of the government crackdown that has made an already horrendous situation worse.

Nobody is unaffected. Even before the latest surge, fear permeated daily life, particularly in poor communities where the gangs stake out most of their territories. Residents who cross the invisible line between them – usually an innocuous-looking bridge, road or park – risk beatings or even death. Taxi drivers dread wrong turns that can lead to robbery or kidnap. Shopping trips, lovers trysts and football matches are all circumscribed by safety concerns. Even staying at home is no guarantee of safety. Shopkeepers, hairdressers and restaurant owners are frequently assailed by extortionists, who typically threaten arson attacks or to cut off the ears or fingers of spouses or children. Parents watch with rising alarm as their sons and daughters approach pubescence – and the inevitable pressures that follow to join the local gang. There is often no one to turn to for support: teachers are intimidated by students and police are afraid to enter many communities.

“Our son doesn’t dare go out because gang members threatened us. He hasn’t been to school for three months” said Bianca Sanchez, whose name has been changed, a hairdresser in the Aguilares region. “In our neighbourhood, people are killed all the time.”

While the rich hide behind high fences, often manned by armed security guards, they too fear kidnapping, carjacking, robbery and extortion. Few are willing to accept phone calls from strangers for fear of death threats and cash demands. Many young people prefer to take their chances on the perilous journey through Mexico and across the US border because illegal migration poses fewer risks than staying in El Salvador.

Constant anxiety and the prevalence of crime have generated widespread hatred of the gangs and demands for the government to take tougher countermeasures. This has almost always proved counterproductive. Past crackdowns – “Iron Fist” and “Super Iron Fist” – tended to increase violence rather than improve security. But the public appears to prefer this to dialogue with the gangs.

‘There is no safe place’

In the San Salvador Cathedral last Sunday, monsignor Hector Figueroa called on the congregation of about 800 to pray for peace, but as the faithful filed out of the mass afterwards, few seemed in a forgiving mood.

Sebastian Sanchez, a 53-year-old security guard, said he wanted the government to take even tougher measures. “The hard-hand is too soft. The violence is getting worse. Human rights are helping the gangs,” he said.

Others simply despaired. “There is no safe place in this country. I know hundreds of people who have been extorted. Some of my neighbours have been murdered. No town is free from violence,” lamented Claudia Henrique, who sells T-shirts by the cathedral gate.

Under President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, the FMLN government, which once vowed to rein in the excesses of state repression, is now ramping up attacks on gang territory with armed police bolstered by more than 7,000 troops. They operate with relative impunity as a result of a recent legal revision that ensures no officer will be investigated for any shooting done in “self-defence”.

This has opened up a new and increasingly bloody front. While the old battle between the gangs continues to account for most of the homicides, the number of killings by police has surged over 300 this year.

El Faro journalists have uncovered evidence that supposed exchanges of fire were actually extrajudicial executions. Death squads formed by cells within the police and army are also suspected in several massacres of gang members.

Jeannette Aguilar, director of the Institute of Public Opinion in the Centroamericano University said the police are now the primary aggressor, yet they have been made unaccountable.

“This is very dangerous because it legitimises the actions of the police department. It normalises the abuse of rights,” she warned. “This motivates gangs to fight and become part of an insurgent movement. We are waking a big monster.”


A letter sent by gang members in June to the government calls for a reinstatement of the truce and an end to the crackdown by authorities.

Imprisoned gang leaders signed a joint letter in June calling for a return to the truce. But young radicals in their ranks want action. More than 50 police or soldiers have been murdered this year. Earlier this month, gangsters started targeting bus drivers, killing seven in four days. Commuters were warned not to use public transport. In response to this apparent attack on the economy, the government said it would charge the perpetrators as “terrorists”.

“This is being done to generate fear. The criminal gangs are trying to scare civilians,” Howard Cotto, the deputy chief of police, told the Guardian. He dismissed calls for a cessation of hostilities. “It’s a pax mafioso. The gangs would use it to get organised, to grow stronger. I don’t agree with a truce.”

But the prospects of a victory seem remote. The gangs are estimated to have about 50,000 members aged 12 to 55 years old, including more than 10,000 in jail. With the addition of several hundred thousand wives, children, parents and collaborators, it is estimated that close to one in ten El Salvadoreans depend on the gangs.

“You can’t kill them all. That would be genocide,” Mijango says. “It’s like a snake that you can’t kill. You can only remove the fangs.”

‘Dialogue is the only way out’



Some are still attempting to do that peacefully. In Ilopango – a suburb on the outskirts of San Salvador – the mayor Salvador Ruano continues to fund outreach programmes and to promote dialogue between the gangs and the authorities.

A charismatic, unorthodox figure, Ruano says murders in his municipality have fallen steadily from 117 in 2011 to a mere 14 last year. “It’s necessary to build a new politics to solve the problem that is destroying our country and bringing only death,” he says after a prayer meeting with local residents. “It can’t be perfect. There will be errors. No one knows how to build peace. But, at least we give people hope. ”

But he fears the government’s recent moves will reverse that progress. A bakery project, which aims to take gang members off the streets, had to be closed when police arrested several of the youths who worked there. A vegetable farm, set up with the same aim, was also visited by police. Ruano has been warned that he could also be arrested.

He is not alone. In a country where 95% of crimes go unpunished, it is now the peacemakers who are under investigation. Last week, the state prosecutor announced an inquiry into the activities to several prominent supporters of the truce, including Mijango and former security minister Munguia Payes.

Senior gang members claim the government is using violence to prevent the mara from becoming a political force. “There are some powers who don’t want peace and they push us back to where we were before and now we have 24 deaths a day,” a leader of Barrio 18, who goes only by the name Santiago, told the Guardian. “The FLMN no longer represents the poor. They fear that is a space that only gangs can now fill. But we don’t have candidates and we have never considered entering politics.”

He said his gang was not interested in a war in which the price would be ultimately paid by El Salvador’s people. “We maintain our position that dialogue is the only way out.”

It is a sentiment echoed by sworn enemies in the MS13. “We know violence leads to more violence. This country doesn’t need more weapons. It needs solutions,” says Marvin. He knows how much the gangs are hated and distrusted and admits they are unlikely to stop criminal activity because cultivating vegetables and raising chickens will never be as easy as extortion. But he says he will continue to look for alternatives.

After decades of gang-led violence and crime, few in El Salvador are likely to take him at his word, but nobody here would disagree with his analysis of who will be worst affected if the situation continues to deteriorate: “In a war it is always the civilians who suffer the worst consequences.”


 

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