In our January 12th. newscast we told you that Belize was tied with St. Kitts-Nevis for the second highest murder rate in the Caribbean.
Well, the figures for Central America are out and it shows that El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have murder rates higher than Belize.
More worryingly, the Economist Magazine of January 20th. reports that, quote, "the countries known as 'the northern triangle' of the Central American isthmus form what is now the most violent region on earth."
As this map from the Economist shows, El Salvador has the highest murder rate in the world at 71 killings per hundred thousand citizens, Honduras is next at 67, Jamaica follows at 53, Venezuela, which is not pictured, is at 49, Guatemala comes after that at 46 per hundred thousand and then Belize and St. Kitts-Nevis both report a murder rate of 40.
According to the Economist, organized crime related to drug trafficking is responsible for most of the bloodshed in Central America. Studies on violence in Belize have concluded that Belize's violence has less to do with transnational drug trafficking and more to do with lack of youth services, lack of access to education, marginalization of males and petty feuding.
http://www.economist.com/node/17963313
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