Daily Violence

Quick - what is the most violent country in the world?  Hmmm... not sure, but it would have to be a war zone, right? Afghanistan?  Maybe Iraq? What if I told you it was Honduras?  Followed quickly by El Salvador and then Venezuela. Honduras' murder rate, expressed as the number of murders reported per 100,000 in population, ranks at 86 / 100,000.  El Salvador and Venezuela's rates are 75 and 65 / 100,000.   In fact, Latin America as a whole, and Central America in particular, virtually owns the title of the world's most violent countries, with a regional average four times the worldwide average. (from Bloggings by Boz) Here are the numbers for 2011:

• Honduras       86  /  100,000     (increase of 15%)
• El Salvador    75
• Venezuela       65
• Guatemala      36
• Colombia        30                              (lowest in 35 years)
• Brazil                26

The stats are similar for cities, with the first non-Latin American city ranking in at #21 (New Orleans, USA). The first war zone city comes in at #44 - Mosul, Iraq - right about where Barranquilla ranks (#42, 36 murders/100,000) ( from Mexican NGO Seguridad, Jusiticia, y Paz)

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I find these numbers illuminating for several reasons. First, I think that most average readers of the news in the US would assume that the majority of violent deaths in the world occur 'over there', i.e. in far away places, rather than in the countries and cities of our shared border and continent.  Second, following the US media's focus on the increasing drug violence in Mexico, I imagine no one would guess that Mexico is far behind the levels of violence in much of neighboring Central America.  Certainly the violence in the high trafficking zones is real and critical, but it only matches the larger and wider problems of systemically astounding and morally disastrous levels of violence throughout the region. I do not believe it is only a casual association that these same high-violence countries are among the most unequal in distribution of wealth, nor that they are susceptible to the corrosion that the US drug trade brings with it.  And while these damning statistics represent very complex underlying problems in these countries, it is the task of every thinking and faithful person to look at how we can be a part of changing these realities.  US policy, through trade, drug and military relations, are very real parts of this story. In the coming months, I hope we can connect how these elements of US policy and society directly relate to the levels of regularized violence that permeate the region. Here is an alternate source, a Wikipedia listing of international murder rates.  The US is at 4.8, and Northern Europe is all less than 1 / 100,000. I also recognize that murder rates are not the only way of thinking about or rating a country's violence, but it serves as a good proxy for the daily violence that people most often experience.