Significative reduction in homicide rates for 2020 in the LATAM region
Coronavirus was the main factor that impacted the region during 2020, affecting all aspects of life: from commerce to employment to human relations and education.
It’s too early to tell how exactly the pandemic may have impacted levels of violence, but there were significant reductions in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Venezuela, historically some of the most violent countries in Latin America.
1. Jamaica: 46.5 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.
Jamaica recorded 1,301 killings in 2020 and had the region’s highest homicide rate according to official data. The country’s total killings marked a marginal decline from 2019’s total of 1,339 murders and came as another welcome improvement over 2017’s sum of 1,647.
Breaking from an overall decrease in “serious” crimes last year, shootings across the nation rose. Gangs in Jamaica and Haiti have reportedly been engaged in a deadly trade where marijuana is exchanged for guns. Boats loaded with up to 3,000 pounds of cannabis have been heading from Jamaica to nearby Haiti, where drugs are swapped for handguns and high-powered assault weapons.
2.Venezuela: 45.6 per 100,000
Despite the continuing economic, social and political crises unfolding in the country, Venezuela recorded a substantial decrease in homicides in 2020. The 11,891 murders logged throughout the year, according to data from the Venezuelan Violence Observatory (Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia — OVV), accounted for a homicide rate of 45.6 per 100,000 citizens and a nearly 30 percent reduction from 2019’s figures.
While violence is still critical, the figures represent an important reduction all over the country, most surely helped by quarantine and other restrictions on movement due to the coronavirus. However, other security indicators raised serious concerns. For the first time in the country’s history, according to the OVV, killings by security forces, which have been on the rise since 2016 across the entire nation, accounted for a high percentage of the homicides. For every 100 killings perpetrated by alleged criminals, 101 homicides were attributed to the country’s security forces.
3.Honduras: 36.7 per 100,000
After seeing an increase in murders in 2019 for the first time in several years, authorities in Honduras recorded a slight drop in killings in 2020. While down almost 13 percent from the number of killings in 2019, Honduras remained the most violent country in Central America.
Indeed, dynamics on the streets may have calmed down, but the country’s overcrowded penal system saw a deadly wave of violence during 2020. Its maximum-security prisons were impacted by various riots, massacres and targeted killings.
In addition, shifts in power led to some high-profile political assassinations with the victims suspected to be involved with drug-trafficking organizations.