I know almost all of us like to travel. However, I can assure you,
VisualPolitik fans, there are some places that are better just to know through postcards.
Places where you can easily lose your wallet, your cell phone or even your life.
However, we know that there are also risk lovers among you.
People who enjoy venturing into the unknown or the forbidden.
That is why, on VisualPolitik, we have taken it upon ourselves to draw up our
own ranking of the most dangerous cities in the world. In doing so,
we have left out places that are currently experiencing the effects of war. We believe
that it would be of little help to talk about cities like Damascus, Kabul or the current Kyiv.
For that we have plenty of other videos. This ranking has been prepared by region
and we have taken into account various factors such as homicides,
robberies, corruption, incidents of all kinds and even expectations. And do you know what?
The common denominators of these cities are poverty, inequality, drugs and the lack of
opportunities for young people. An explosive cocktail that ends up unleashing violence in
many parts of the world. In this video we are going to see some of the most significant ones.
None of them are in Europe, and not because there are not dangerous places there. We could talk
about Marseille, Naples or the Albanian Tropoja. However, this ranking goes to another level.
So the question is: Which are the most dangerous cities in the world? In which places would you
have to be very careful even to buy a soft drink? Well... Listen up.
(FROM THE INDIAN OCEAN TO THE SOUTH SEAS)
Coming in at number 3… Yangon. Myanmar, the country that everyone knows as Burma,
is a real powder keg. In 2005, Yangon ceased to be the capital, but it is still the main city of the
country by far. A year ago, the military staged a coup d'état, yet another one, formally returning
them to power. Since then the security forces have crushed any protest and the local currency
has lost a third of its value, dealing a heavy blow to the already battered Burmese economy.
So, if you are not the victim of a robbery, you run the risk of a stray rubber bullet
crossing your path. Obviously, you can’t even think of saying that you like social media.
Facebook is blocked and the military regime continues to tighten its grip.
N1(Myanmar renews plans to curb internet usage with VPN ban - Nikkei Asia)
Ban VPNs? It is clear that we on VisualPolitik could not be more against this. As William
Wallace said, "they may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom".
Rank number 2 for Karachi. With nearly 20 million inhabitants,
just surviving in Pakistan's most populous city is an achievement. Ethnic and sectarian
tension can be felt in the streets. Karachi is located in the province of
Sindh. But many of its inhabitants are not Sindhis but Muhajirs, Muslims from India.
They are joined by Pashtuns from the areas along the border with Afghanistan. This has
filled the city with Islamic fundamentalists. Even so, the main enemy of all Karachi people
is still poverty. Violent robberies are frequent in their endless traffic jams;
traffic jams sometimes caused by barricades set up by the criminal gangs themselves.
The good news is that the authorities are moving to improve this ranking.
For example, the $163 million, that’s 150 million euro Safe City Karachi Project plans to install
around 10,000 video surveillance cameras with facial recognition technology in the city.
It also plans to replace traditional license plates on vehicles with radio
frequency identification plates capable of being detected by these cameras. The
problem is that Karachi Safe City is already seven
years behind schedule and has been the source of endless corruption scandals.
And watch out, because if you manage to escape all this, your health will still be at risk.
Karachi is one of the most polluted cities in the world due to road traffic and uncontrolled
garbage burning. The sewage system is horrible, there is no drinking water and
disease-carrying mosquitoes abound. To top it all off, the sanitation services are bad
and expensive. So, unless you are Bin Laden, there’s not much for you in these lands.
Coming in at number 1 is... Port Moresby The capital of Papua New Guinea is such an
impoverished and dangerous place that when it was the country's turn to host the annual
APEC meeting in 2018, attended among others by Xi Jinping, Trudeau and Vice President Pence,
they had to rent three cruise ships to host all the delegations in order to ensure their safety.
The unemployment rate in the city is over 50%. With a population of 250,000,
it is a place where homicide rates are exceptionally high, thanks mainly to the
Raskol gangs, which control large areas. Visitors to Port Moresby are advised not
to leave their accommodation after sunset and to avoid walking the streets in virtually the entire
city during the day. The Raskol are capable of everything from robbing banks with M-16 machine
guns to attacking vehicles armed with machetes. But wait a minute, this is not the only award Port
Moresby has received. Check it out. N2 (Port Moresby: The world's most
dangerous city to be a woman? - BBC) No less than 41% of men surveyed in Papua
New Guinea admit to having raped a woman who was not their partner. And taking into account
intimate partner assaults, a Human Rights Watch study puts the figure as high as 70%.
And that's not the end of the problems. Witch hunts, in which women are accused of sorcery,
occur frequently and end in the torture and murder of the accused women. So we can take
away the question mark: Port Moresby is the worst place on earth to be a
woman. 2
(MEMORIES OF AFRICA)
Coming in at number 3 is… Lagos. With more than 15 million inhabitants,
this is the second most populous city in Africa and the economic center of Nigeria.
However, the lack of security in Lagos is so high that many children miss school for fear of being
kidnapped. And no, the police are no help. Their numbers are few, they’re poorly trained
and poorly paid. This leaves the way clear for local thugs, the so-called Area Boys, gangs of
young men who rob houses and carjack vehicles. And then there is the danger posed by the okada.
Okada are motorcycle cabs that provide an inexpensive and fast option to escape the
constant traffic jams. The problem is that their main method of doing so is by not
respecting the most basic rules of the road, such as driving in the right direction. So
taking an okada is one of the best options if you want to end the day in a Lagos hospital.
In addition, the Lagos authorities are considering banning these motorcycle cabs,
of which there are an estimated one million on the streets, because of
the connections that some of their drivers maintain with the corresponding Area Boys.
What is certain, however, is that banning the okada would aggravate poverty in Lagos,
since Nigeria is the country with the largest youth population in the
world and half of them are unemployed and/or in very precarious conditions.
Rank number 2 for Kinshasa. The capital of the Democratic
Republic of Congo, once so beautiful to the point of being known as "Kin la belle", has changed so
much that its inhabitants now call it "Kin la poubelle", which means "Kin the trash can".
And as if the accumulated garbage and smelly sewers were not unpleasant enough,
the Congolese city is traumatized by the Kulunas, a group of young men armed with machetes who rob
and kill left and right. A threat aggravated over the last year by the Kinshasa zombies.
The streets of Kinshasa have been invaded by a new
cheap drug with very potent effects. We are talking about
Bombé [Bom bay], a substance made from the catalytic converter deposits of automobiles.
It is extracted from old cars abandoned in junkyards and then processed
as a drug. After taking the bombé, the kuluna first become euphoric,
at which point they commit all sorts of crimes.
But then these young men begin to move slower and slower until they look like real zombies.
Since 2020, there has been a further increase in kuluna activity in Kinshasa,
resulting in an increase in serious crime, including armed robbery and
violent assaults. Once again poverty is the cause of much of the crime.
A large proportion of the estimated 15 million people living in Kinshasa
have no steady work or regular income of any kind.
And coming in at number 1 is Cape Town. South Africa has reduced its levels of violence
since adopting democracy in 1994. But things have changed over the last decade. Violent crime has
soared due to a dangerous mix of poverty, guns and policing that leaves much to be desired.
It may come as a surprise to you but this has been particularly true in a
city as touristy and well-known as Cape Town, a place where homicides have shot up by 60%.
The territories dominated by the gangs are the Cape Flats,
the marginal neighborhoods designated for the black population in times of apartheid.
Gangs such as The Americans, The Numbers Gang or the Laughing Boys rule there.
And so on to the approximately 130 gangs to which an estimated 100,000 people in the Flats belong.
In these neighborhoods, turf battles between gangs are frequent, causing waves of violence
that terrorize Cape Town. And where do all the weapons that circulate in the Flats
come from? Well, pay attention, because they come from the most unlikely places.
N3 (Ex-cop gets 18 years for stealing, reselling guns to Cape gangsters – News24)
In total, investigators linked more than 1,000 murders and some 1,500 attempted murders to these
weapons alone. And the worst part is that this is not an isolated case. Corrupt police manipulate
the judicial records of arrested gang members. The murder conviction rate on the Flats is barely
2%. Therefore, in the face of such impunity, it should come as no surprise that street gangs
continue to dominate areas now given such meaningful names as Cowboy Town,
Taliban Area and the Jungle. Yes, you can visit Cape Town and have
a great time. But beyond the luxury hotels and expensive areas, this is the other reality that
is being imposed on the city. 3
(THE LAND OF NO OPPORTUNITIES)
Coming in at number 3 is… San Pedro Sula.
Latin America still remains the most violent region in the world. Gang conflict,
corruption and institutional weakness contribute to high levels of violence throughout the region.
For years San Pedro Sula held the undesirable title of being the city with the most murders
in the world. This place became an obligatory point of passage for 80%
of the cocaine that was trafficked from Colombia to the United States. We are talking
about territory controlled by the Maras. N4 (The mara salvatrucha installed cameras
in neighborhoods of San Pedro Sula to control the population and the police – News Today)
The lack of opportunities continues to encourage young people, some as young as 12 years old,
to be recruited by these Maras. For years, Honduras has been trying to cleanse its security
forces of corruption and has managed to reduce levels of violence. But there is still no relief
in places like San Pedro Sula, where extortion and kidnapping are still the order of the day.
Rank number 2 for St. Louis. This is another city that came as a surprise
in this ranking and to which VisualPolitik has already dedicated an entire video.
WIth a mostly African-American population, St. Louis, a city of 300,000 inhabitants in the
state of Missouri, suffers the highest rate of violence in the United States. Shootings
are frequent and usually occur in the northern suburbs of the city.
Gangs are not particularly a problem in St. Louis, but drug trafficking and gun violence
are. In 2020 this city broke its macabre record: 262 murders in just one year.
Of all homicides, only one third are solved due to lack of police.
Coming in at number 1 is… Caracas. The Venezuelan capital is going through an
unprecedented wave of violence and its five million inhabitants endure a
constant deterioration of public services due to the mismanagement of the Chavista regime.
Less than one-fifth of Venezuelans feel safe walking down the street at night and police
have to routinely search for weapons even on city buses in the poorest neighborhoods.
Places like Cota 905 have been the scene of intense shootouts between criminal gangs and
police forces that have paralyzed daily life. On VisualPolitik we already know all too well
how the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro is doing. So do the Caracas mobsters.
N5 (Venezuelan security forces killed "El Koki", alleged leader of a gang that terrorized Caracas)
Mismanagement and hyperinflation have impoverished society and widened the gap
between those who have access to dollars and those who do not. In this situation, many have
no alternative but to resort to crime, so, as you can imagine, greenbacks are highly coveted
in Caracas. So be careful with your wallet. But, I know what many of you are thinking, is that
all? Are you not going to even mention Mexico? 4
(MEXICAN STANDOFF) I sympathize with all of
you who are watching us from this fantastic country, but if we’re talking about violent
cities, Mexico gets its own section. Year after year, its cities top the world
homicide rankings. The country has the misfortune of being located directly between the coca fields
of South America and the United States, the largest narcotics market in the world. So...
Coming in at number 3 is Ciudad Juarez.
For years the border city of Ciudad Juarez became the bloodiest battleground of the
Mexican government's war on drugs. This city of 1.5 million inhabitants endured more than
300 murders a month. Extortion, kidnapping and car theft became endemic. This led to its recognition
as the most dangerous city in the world. The fight for territory weakened and fragmented
the larger cartels operating in the area, such as the once all-powerful Juarez Cartel.
But now the violence is flaring up again. Homicides are on the rise as smaller local
cartels are now fighting each other for their share of the crystal methamphetamine business.
Rank number 2 for Acapulco Remember that this ranking does
not only depend on the number of homicides. VisualPolitik fans, in the 1990s the beaches
of Acapulco became fashionable and achieved worldwide fame. But in 2007 the problems began.
Violence erupted after the dominant cartel split. The vacant throne was
quickly occupied by smaller local groups. A brutal struggle for territory began. That
ended Acapulco's prestige as an idyllic vacation destination. But wait a minute,
because now the authorities have a foolproof plan to restore its reputation.
N6 (Don't write about violence for sake of tourism, Acapulco mayor
tells reporters – Mexico News Daily) Of course, Mr. mayor, silencing crime
is the best way to stop kidnapping and extortion! And seeing soldiers patrolling
the beaches will surely leave the tourists a lot calmer. The big problem is that impunity
knows practically no bounds in this city. And in the absence of a dominant cartel,
there are a few criminal organizations dedicated to trafficking heroin,
produced from poppies grown throughout the state of Guerrero and distributed from there to the
United States. And you know that wherever there are plenty of drugs, there are plenty of problems.
And coming in at number 1 is… Tijuana. Tijuana is perhaps the most dangerous city in
the world. The fight against drug trafficking has backfired on this border city in Baja California.
The capture of kingpins has left cartels fragmented and fighting among themselves.
And Tijuana is proving to be one of its main battlegrounds. The homicide rate has almost
tripled in the last five years and is 20 times higher than the world average. So many people
are being killed that Tijuana can't keep up. We all know for sure one of its latest victims:
journalist Lourdes Maldonado, who had asked for help and protection from President AMLO himself.
Unfortunately, we can only send our best wishes to all of you who are
watching us from all these cities. But now the question is over to you:
Do you think any city is missing in this particular top three by region? Leave
us your comments and if you found this video interesting don't forget to like and subscribe
to VisualPolitik if you haven't already done so. All the best and see you next time.