Where are you links?

The murder rate in Mexico was high in 2000 before the recent border drug war according to my links, wikipedia.

The murder rate in mexico is similiar to that in central and south america at 15 to 29 per 100k not like the 2 to 3 among white americans.


The murder rate in Venezuela is 33 to 50 per 100k.Can you explain that?

Murder rate in Washington DC is 50 to 70 per 100k and we know it aint the rich white folks on capitol hill doing that.

Based on the data: one would conclude the murder rate among blacks and hispanics is higher than that among white people.

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IRAQ: Baghdad is Safer than Washington, DC

June 21, 2004: The anti-government violence in Iraq is causing a annualized death rate of 15 per 100,000 population for terrorist activities alone. That compares to a murder rate in the United States of 5.6 per 100,000. European nations have an average rate of about four per 100,000, while Russia is 20 per 100,000. Some nations are particularly violent. South Africa has a murder rate of 59, and neighboring Namibia is 45. Colombia, in South America, was over 50 a few years ago, but is now down to the 30s because a crackdown on armed militias. The Middle East tends of have low murder rates, with Turkey having a rate of 2.3. Israel also had a rate of 2.3, until the Palestinians began their Terrorism campaign in late 2000. The deaths from suicide bombings and other attacks doubled Israel's murder rate to about 4 per 100,000, although that has been coming down in the past year.

But Iraq has become accustomed to a high murder rate. Saddam's police forces were the cause of many murders, and as far back as the 1970s, the official murder rate was 12 per 100,000. The coalition forces and Iraqi security forces have gotten the non-terrorist murder rate down to about five per 100,000. This, combined with the deaths caused by terrorists, produces a rate of about 20 per year. The murder rate in Washington, DC, is over 60 per 100,000.
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Chávez was elected President in 1998 Photo: AP

Venezuela now has more murders than Colombia - despite its neighbour being officially at war against Marxist guerillas.

Venezuela endures 48 murders for every 100,000 people each year. Britain, by contrast, has 2 per 100,000.

In Caracas the official rate is 130 per 100,000, a number which the Investigative Institute of Co-existence and Citizen Security, a think thank dedicated to the study of crime, insists is closer to 166, making Caracas twice as dangerous as Cape Town.

It is not just murders that are on the increase, but kidnappings as well. In 1998, when President Hugo Chavez took power, there were 50 registered kidnappings per year. Last year there were 382 registered, though experts believe the majority of abductions go unreported.

Many kidnappings occur along the border with Colombia, once the kidnap capital of the world. Many of those kidnapped in the border area are believed held by Colombian rebels, for whom Mr Chavez has expressed support.

Venezuela has also become the principal transit nation for cocaine heading towards Europe. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) estimates that in excess of 200 tons a year passes through Venezuela, some flown through the Caribbean into the US, but the majority heading to Europe, often via West Africa.

The government has sought to deflect blame for crime increases, suggesting that Washington is working with Colombia to finance paramilitary groups intent on killing Mr Chavez and overthrowing his government.

So I


http://www.paho.org/English/AD/DPC/NC/violence-graphs.htm#homicides-n-sa


Caracas, Venezuela - It's Friday night in Petare, a hillside slum in Venezuela's crime-ridden capital, Caracas. A barber cocks his head back, and lets out a laugh, as he trims a client's hair. A child runs across the street after a ball. Teens gather precariously on a ledge.

It's a slice of "barrio" life in all its intensity, and even joy, but Oscar Arenas, a police officer who patrols Petare, says visitors should not be deceived. This is now one of the deadliest neighborhoods in Latin America, and at any moment the salsa music pouring out of cars, corner stores, and living rooms can be interrupted by a hail of bullets.

Caracas has become the murder capital of South America – registering a homicide rate that exceeds that of Bogotá, Colombia, where a decades-long civil war has simmered, and Mexico City, where escalating drug violence generates some of world's most gruesome headlines. Last year, there were 130 murders for every 100,000 habitants in Caracas, according to government numbers released by the Center for Peace and Human Rights at the Central University of Venezuela.

Crime sits at the top of the list of concerns for Venezuelans. And while allies of President Hugo Chávez won the majority of seats across the country during local elections last month, the party lost key municipal mayoral seats in Caracas, even in rough-and-tumble neighborhoods like Petare, which have long been strongholds for the leftist leader.

"Insecurity is horrible here; the government does nothing about it," says Roni Escalona, a resident of Petare who says he knows people who kill and sell drugs but face no justice because the system does not work and corruption reigns. "You feel a grand impotence."

From afar, Petare looks like a Christmas tree – with homes along the hill lit up with simple bulbs. Climbing deep into the neighborhood, as the police patrol on a recent Friday night – the deadliest night in Caracas along with Saturday – the streets get darker and sparsely populated. A pack of men lets out a whistle warning others that police are in the area.

Right then, Mr. Arenas's cellphone rings: It's an anonymous call about a man shot on a sidewalk. A woman has seen a gang of men head behind a house to stash their arms. It's nothing unusual, Arenas says. With 2,710 homicides in Caracas last year, that's an average of seven killings a night.

Since president Chávez was elected in 1998, the homicide rate in the capital has more than doubled from 63 murders for every 100,000 inhabitants to 130 today. The country has experienced a parallel spike: from 20 to 48. That compares with a homicide rate in the US of 5.6, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Venezuelans consistently rank security as their top concern, even ahead of inflation, which rose to a 36 percent in September. According to a survey by the Caracas-based polling company Datanalisis, 80 percent of respondents report being unsatisfied with how the president has handled crime.

Still, over the past decade, Chávez has not been punished at the ballot box. Alfredo Marquez, a retired teacher, says he never leaves his house in Petare after 6 p.m. – a form of house arrest that never existed before. But he doesn't blame the president. "We have inherited the problem," he says. "The only way to end it is to continue with the revolution."

Both extreme poverty and unemployment have been halved since Chávez took office, from about 16 percent to about 7 percent last year, according to the national statistics office.

Yet the rampant violence has other residents questioning whether poverty reduction alone will work. Betty Diaz, a Petare resident, became active in the campaign of the opposition mayoral candidate, who won last month, in large part because of crime. "The situation is horrible," says Ms. Diaz, whose adult son was killed six months ago in broad daylight.

The government has begun to address the situation, including establishing a commission to address police reform and moving toward the creation of a national police force. Six months ago it also launched a program called Secure Caracas, consisting of more street and motorbike patrols by municipal police and the National Guard in the city's hot spots.

But critics of Chávez say that he does little to tackle the root causes of violence. Monica Fernandez, a researcher with the Institute for Research for Coexistence and Citizen Security, a think tank that analyzes crime, says that the impunity rate is as high as 97 percent. Of 6 million guns on the street, 4.5 million are illegal, she says. And public opinion polls show that most residents consider the police to be corrupt and inept – a view that Arenas bristles at. "They have no idea what we have to deal with," he says.

It is unclear whether crime will severely undermine Chávez's popularity. Even though it hurt him in some local races last month, most residents tend to blame the violence they suffer on a confluence of factors that has poverty at its root and the stubborn gap between rich and poor – on startling display as the municipal police wend their way down the hill of Petare, into the adjacent neighborhood of El Marques, an affluent area of orderly streets lined with laundromats, supermarkets, and restaurants.

At the subway stop here, a reggae singer called Mumbo hops into a train car and begins strumming. "The police have attacked again; the victim was surely innocent; even though the media called him a delinquent, it's not true," he croons. "Put down your guns; we can't continue like this."

Subway passengers usually ignore such performances during their commutes, but this night they clap when Mumbo finishes. Almost everyone reaches into their pockets to hand him change. Everyone, it appears, is sick of the violence.

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MEXIDATA . INFO
Column 011606 Brewer

Monday, January 16, 2006


Homicide Rate in Mexico is Appalling



By Jerry Brewer



Impunity in Mexico’s homicide rate is not acceptable at any international humanitarian level. This, an issue that must concern all free nations of the world that value the dignity of human life. Too, it must be a major concern of each presidential candidate in the upcoming Mexican elections. The citizens of Mexico, as well as victims and victim families, must demand action and plans to bring the guilty to justice. A democratic nation must be dedicated and prepared to act on their behalf for humanitarian purposes



According to figures cited in the Mexican media, more than 1,500 people died in 2005 of violence linked to “organized crime.”



It is believed that approximately 500 women have been murdered in the state of Chihuahua since the late 1980s. Many have simply disappeared. The killing of women has continued virtually unabated since 1993. The causes of this aura of femicide vary – domestic violence, suspected narco-executions, gang shootings, and sexual assaults. Many of the murders of these women seem to follow the long-pattern of young women who suddenly disappear and are later found raped and murdered.



Violence against women is epidemic in Mexico. In Ciudad Juarez alone, six years of killing sprees have claimed the lives of 182 women. Many human rights organizations believe that figure to be even greater, with many still missing. At least 100 of the Ciudad Juarez victims fit a pattern in which a young, slender woman was sexually assaulted, strangled, and dumped in the surrounding desert. In the state of Chihuahua a significant number of cases of young women and adolescents were reported missing.



On the “organized crime,” or drug trafficking front, the victims have included many current or former police officers, government officials, politicians, and journalists. In 2005 more than 187 people were murdered in the Nuevo Laredo area alone. Many victims have simply vanished into the control of armed groups.



As equally disturbing as the staggering body count in Mexico, is the level of sophistication of the killers/assassins and their facilitation of movement to avoid capture. The weaponry used by these killers have included grenade launchers, bazookas, AK-47 automatic weapons, and others. In Nuevo Laredo, after a violent firefight with police, an apparent hit list of officials sentenced to death was found, as well as addresses, maps, and photographs of municipal police officers.



As for the “killing expertise,” Los Zetas, a group of elite former Mexican soldiers have led the way, hired by organized drug cartels. Later, former members of a Guatemalan special forces unit known as “Kaibiles” emerged. The Kaibiles are known for their grueling jungle-survival training, paratrooper skills, and counterinsurgency operations. Seven alleged members were arrested last year in the State of Chiapas.



Mexican drug cartels are also recruiting hired killers in the U.S. Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico’s anti-drug prosecutor, said that the “great majority” of gunmen for the Sinaloa Cartel are U.S. citizens “who live in the United States.”



How can so much death and violence in Mexico take a backseat to massive world media detailing less pressing issues? Is the value of human life (in Mexico) not regarded as a top world concern? Are we more concerned about migration or should we also be concerned humanely for many of the reasons people flee for their lives?



The death toll is real and there should be no confusion on that issue. In case the murdered victims, women and children, and the countless missing do not move us to action, let us look beyond walls and fences to the fact that the U.S.-Mexico border area remains one of the most dangerous anywhere in the world. All of these dangers pose a serious and immediate threat to public safety on both sides of the border. Walls do not stop murder. Walls do not prevent sophisticated weaponry and elite-trained paramilitary assassins. In plain fact, a horrendous war is taking place that knows no boundaries.



This epidemic of violent murder and impunity must end. There is no reasonable expectation of any police force in Mexico to have, or acquire on its own, the resources necessary to effectively win this fight alone. For the insurgents are far too well armed, trained, and financed.



Mexico needs help with their profound deficiencies in justice and security, and an inability to cope with many of the needs and rights of their citizens. The world must lend a helping hand.

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Jerry Brewer, the Vice President of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global risk mitigation firm headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, is also a columnist with MexiData.info. He can be reached via e-mail at Cjiaincusa@aol.com