According to the 2013-2014 United Nations Regional Human Development Report —released November 12— Latin America is the only region in the world where overall homicide rates increased between 2000 and 2010.

Although Latin American economies have grown and unemployment has declined in the last 10 years, the region suffered more than one million homicide victims, which represents more than 100,000 homicides per year.
But this situation is not random. The report shows that trends in violence were not correlated exclusively with trade drug, but with several socio-economic factors, such as low job quality and level of schooling, urban growth, corruption, impunity and availability of firearms.

Distribution of the incidence of homicide in the region is kind of uneven as violence hit some countries more than others. For example, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Venezuela all had homicide rates of over 30 per 100,000 residents, while Mexico, Brazil, Panama, Ecuador, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic had rates of over 10 per 100,000. In this landscape, the case of Honduras is paradoxical: homicide rate rose from 50 per 100,000 in 2005 to 86 per 100,000 in 2011. Despite an accompanying increase in police numbers in the streets, the homicide rate went off partly because of the highly corrupt nature of the police force —accused of 149 extrajudicial killings in two years— and specially after the coup d’etat to Manuel Zalaya´s democratic government and the maintenance of Porfirio Lobo, a President without popular support.

According to InSight Crime —a project that does analysis and investigation on organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean— in Central Ameri-ca is was not just homicides which increased but prison population, with 85 percent over the decade, with the largest increase registered in El Salvador. This is deeply related to the fact that the region became the principal route for cocaine moved into the United States and the organized crime settled in these countries, such as the “maras”.

From South America, Colombia was the country that registered the highest rising rates, caused by many factors such as internal armed conflict, rising inequality, drug trafficking/production and unequal access to education. And some traditionally less violent countries, such as Argentina and Bolivia, also posted significant rises of violence related with the fact that they converted from cocaine overseas shippers into cocaine producers. According to the Los Angeles Times, Argentina is ideal for its “advanced chemical industry, [its] porous border with Bolivia and a notoriously corrupt police force”. And this new process carries an indirect effect: state institutions corruption reduces citizen access to adequate security and justice mechanisms, growing their insecurity perceptions.

While the problem of high homicide rates is complex, it’s not impossible to solve. The report points to the need for multidimensional strategies to address crime, like the need for educational programs to reduce gang’s members or reform criminal justice systems, but truth is that every solution must be particularly designed, according to differences in the countries’ social contexts and political models.