So, let’s say you had a good year.
You spent wisely and saved plenty so you can finally take that well-earned vacation.
You may dream of devouring creamy chocolates and cheeses in Switzerland, of diving into
the shimmering blue waters of Hawaii, or tranquility on the sandy beaches of the Bahamas.
Well, we’re here to tell you a few places you may not want to go and check off your
list of possibilities.
Or at the very least use an abundance of caution while visiting.
We’ll explain why you should be picky about some Latin American destinations on this episode
of The Infographics Show, Most Violent Places in the World.
Business Insider recently published a series of statistics from the Citizens’ Council
for Public Security and Criminal Justice.
It ranked cities worldwide and came up with the 50 most violent in 2018.
Almost all were in Latin America, which is considered an area particularly plagued by
crime, poverty, and corruption.
Five of the top six are in Mexico as well as 15 of the total 50.
This is more than any other country.
Here we will focus on the top ten violent cities in the world and explore why these
areas are so dangerous and what kinds of crimes are common there.
Number ten is the city of Ciudad Bolivar in Venezuela which averaged 69.09 homicides for
each group of 100,000 residents.
That means that in 2018, with a population of 382,095 people, 264 of them came to a violent
end.
Unsurprisingly, the United States Overseas Security Advisory Council, or OSAC, has warned
citizens to reconsider travel to the area.
Or the country.
It is considered a critical-threat location and one of the world’s most violent places.
It’s important to note that data is not freely offered by government officials and
so figures are calculated by other methods such as police or media reports.
In fact, the government often tries to reject claims that there have been any recent escalations
in murder or crime at all.
However, those with first-hand experience either living or traveling to Venezuela tell
a far different story.
For instance, in 2017, the rates of crime appeared to increase in almost every area.
Unofficial statistics revealed that 73 or more Venezuelans were killed each and every
day as a consequence.
This includes numbers from our 3rd and 7th most dangerous cities on this list that are
also in Venezuela.
Believe it or not, this was actually an improvement from the prior year due to increased security
between the months of April and August.
However, fighting crime in the country is not without consequences.
In 2017, 236 police officers and other members of law enforcement were murdered.
Number nine is Fortaleza in north-eastern Brazil with 69.16 homicides for every 100,000
residents.
2,724 of its 3,939,460 people were killed deliberately in 2018.
Many of its problems are due to gang activity which has only gotten worse with the passing
years.
There have been endless conflicts between Fortaleza’s Guardians of State, Amazona’s
Northern Family, the First Capital Command from Sao Paulo, and the Red Command from Rio
de Janeiro as territories of some trespassed on the strongholds of others.
The First Capital Command and Red Command are also at war over the sale of drugs and
consider Fortaleza a prime location with its port to Africa and Europe.
Brazilian security forces have struggled to maintain any type of order and were responsible
for the deaths of an average of 14 citizens each day in 2017.
Recently gangs have come together to create mass mayhem all at once.
In the beginning of 2019 this chaos was caused because of a proposal to no longer separate
gangs inside of prisons.
Hearing this news, three gangs made over 160 attacks, most of which took place in Fortazela.
Vehicles went up in flames, government buildings and businesses were bombed, and a telephones
exchange was demolished, leaving many without service.
They even damaged an overpass and a bridge.
There were shootouts in the streets and many in fear for their lives stayed inside their
homes.
This seemed a direct challenge to the new rule of president Jair Bolsonaro.
His plans on which he rose to power included military force and lethal force.
In response to this latest Fortaleza upheaval 500 national guard troops were used, 148 arrests
made, and 20 people suspected of masterminding the events transferred to the federal prison
system.
Despite it all, the government still planned to abolish gang separation in prisons.
It remains to be seen if fighting violence with Bolsonaro’s current strategies will
bring any lasting change to the region.
Number 8 is another city in Brazil, known as Natal, with 74.67 murders per each 100,000
residents or 1,185 homicides among its 1,587,055 2018 population.
Already in 2016, the area had the distinction of the highest increase in homicides within
the span of a decade, and unfortunately, this upwards trend seems to be continuing.
While Brazil in general is plagued by drugs, gangs, poverty, and wide-spread corruption,
Natal in particular has lots of problems.
Armed robberies are common for both pedestrians and motorists and commonly targeted areas
include the red-light districts, downtown, and just inside the city limits.
Those who eat out late at night on into the morning in nicer areas are also frequently
attacked.
It is recommended not to use an ATM unless in a secure facility and to avoid buses at
any time.
It is also best to avoid staying out at night or going to isolated locations.
Your life may depend on it.
Number 7 is the city of Ciudad Guayana in Venezuela which averaged 78.30 murders for
every 1000,000 members of its population.
This amounted to 645 of its 823,722 people in 2018.
As we mentioned in our discussion of the city of Ciudad Bolivar, or our number 10 dangerous
city, Venezuela is an unstable country where many citizens are killed routinely.
A lot of its problems are tied to its ongoing civil unrest that is triggered for any of
several reasons.
It seems unable to provide for its people.
In 2016, many Venezuelans crossed over the Colombia border because they were starving
and desperate for food.
This only became more of a problem the following year.
In 2017 the area experienced a record number of protests, or a minimum of 9,787 of them,
due to three main problems.
These were political disagreement about the introduction of democratic ideas, limited
resources, and inflation.
The result was 160 dead and many more jailed or injured.
Government corruption and a lack of rights or freedoms hardly help either.
Then there are the collectivos, or gang-militias that are also pro-government and have been
known to intimidate the opposition during elections.
This, for obvious reasons, prevents change.
Collectivos have been known to murder protestors as well as clash with the police.
Problems are ongoing and new ones occur to make things even worse.
In March of 2019 an alert was issued citing planned demonstrations to protest the failed
electricity grid of the country.
A majority of citizens were without power starting on March 26.
This was not only an inconvenience due to loss of Internet and cell phone function but
also dangerous as it impacted public sources of water.
It also prevented several hospitals from helping prospective patients.
In other words, they were protesting for their lives and wellbeing.
Numbers 6 through 4 on this list are all in Mexico.
Number 6 is Irapuato.
There were 81.44 homicides for every 100,000 people in Irapuato, a city within Guanajuato
state.
This meant that 473 people out of 580,808 died in 2018.
An example of the type of violence prevalent in the area made headlines in May of 2018.
46 people in Guanajuato were brutally killed between a Monday and Thursday with 13 additional
bodies discovered the next day.
Of the victims in Irapuato, most were targets of hired assassins funded by groups fighting
for stolen gasoline.
This, unfortunately, is a source of a lot of conflict in the city.
Number five is the city of Ciudad Juarez near Mexico’s northern border.
The area averages 85.56 homicides per 100,000 residents for a total of 1,251 dead out of
1,462,133 in 2018.
At one point the violence in the city seemed to be improving, but as with other areas escalated
again.
In both June and July 177 people were killed and in August 35 died in a single weekend.
The 11 who died on the Friday were first tortured.
Drug cartels along with an absence of quality employment or education that lead to gang
involvement are blamed for this violence.
Number 4 is Ciudad Victoria, also in Mexico’s northern region.
Here there were 86.01 murders per 100,000 people with 314 dead of 365,089 in 2018.
Much of this is the work of rival gangs like the Los Ciclones, Los Rojos, Metros, Scorpions,
and Cartel del Noreste.
In the summer of 2016, 11 people of one family were shot dead which was followed by eight
others in nearby areas either wounded or killed.
In 2018 cartel gunmen began surprising and shooting their victims at their homes in the
early morning hours.
In one week a 52 year old woman and three men were shot in and outside their homes,
many execution style and some with machine guns.
Here we will also mention that later on in this list there are two more Mexican cities
as well that are even more dangerous than these.
So, you may be wondering why are many areas in Mexico so incredibly violent, and why aren’t
they doing anything about it.
It’s countless cartels that bring chaos to the region and that have the ability to
pay off members of law enforcement and the judicial system with their billions in drug-based
profits.
Historically, the government even offered them protection under the single Institutional
Revolutionary Party system before 2000.
Under new leadership it has since tried to fight back with a cartel-targeted approach
but has often had mixed results.
This is because Mexico has used military strength in efforts to squash criminal activities.
This began back in 2006 when the president at the time used marines, soldiers, and police
to fight cartels busy trafficking drugs.
Unfortunately, while it did bring down some it also created new ones that happily claimed
the newly available space and expanded their activities.
Mexican cartels remain the largest foreign suppliers of many drugs to the United States,
including heroin cocaine, and fentanyl, a man-made opioid.
Their production of just heroin increased by 37% from 2016 to 2017.
Mexico’s new president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, plans to do things a bit differently
from those before him.
Obrador campaigned to focus on the real cause of the problems in Mexico which fueled the
formation of cartels to begin with through economic-based programs.
He plans to end the militaristic war that turned the country into a virtual border to
border graveyard.
He assumed office near the end of 2018 so it remains to be seen what impacts his policies
will have.
Hopefully he can break the vicious cycle.
It’s now been over a decade since cartels have been targeted by the government and they
continue to do well.
Homicides have doubled during the past three years.
Number 3 is Caracas in Venezuela with 99.98 murders for every 100,000 residents which
means that 2,980 of its 2,980,492 people died in 2018.
Though Venezuela as a whole is anything but safe, Caracas is considered its most dangerous
location.
Most of the problems in Caracas are linked to the actions of street gangs and organized
crime.
These groups do not work surreptitiously in the dead of night but visit violence on the
population at all times, including in the light of day.
This includes not only murder but also robbery and kidnapping and no neighborhood is safe.
Neither are foreigners.
Due to many owning vehicles as well as the low cost of fuel, criminals now enjoy a larger
area of activity than ever before.
The wealthier areas of El Hatillo, Baruta, and Chacao where members of the government
and business professionals live are targeted for kidnapping and robbery.
Those invading homes pose as salesmen or follow close behind residents to bypass their security
systems, often with lethal consequences.
People on the streets are also prime targets, whether pedestrians on the sidewalks or those
sitting in traffic.
These individuals are frequently approached by a criminal on a motorcycle wielding a firearm.
ATMs are also quite dangerous and people have been killed even after withdrawing large sums
of cash from inside banks, hinting at corruption within the financial institutions.
Pickpockets target those in the city with a focus on public transit and downtown areas.
Any who try to fight back are almost always brutally murdered.
Number 2 is Acapulco, Mexico which nearly tops the charts with 110.5 homicides for each
of its 100,000 residents.
In 2018, 948 of its 857,833 people were killed.
Somewhat surprisingly, it is a resort destination despite these alarming statistics.
However, some call it a violent paradise and with good reason.
In fact, those on vacation there in 2018 witnessed two men gunned down right in front of them.
Apparently, it was nothing new as the tourists then continued to eat their food or sunbathe
on the beach while the bodies lay on the ground nearby.
In April of that year the body of a man washed up on the shoreline among those enjoying the
water who continued to stand there.
April was also when 16 people were gunned down in a half-an-hour-long confrontation.
The state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, struggles to accommodate the bodies from makeshift
graves or off the streets.
Morgues can hardly find room.
But there are plenty of resources for tourism.
In 2017 Mexico was the sixth most popular tourist destination around the world and 39
million people visited from other locations.
In 2017 Acapulco actually experienced a 7 percent increase in visits.
It takes 1,740 police officers, two helicopters, and drones to keep its beaches even remotely
safe.
Though, as those who continued to enjoy the scenery despite murder have shown, tourists
don’t seem to care what happens one bit.
That is, as long as the gun’s pointing in a different direction.
First on the list of violent places is another city in Mexico, specifically Tijuana.
It had 138.26 murders per 100,000 residents which meant that out of its 2018 population
of 1,909,424, 2,640 people died.
This averages out to 7 dead each day.
Many problems stem from the actions of local gangs fighting over drugs.
It seemed not long ago that things were getting better in the area, but lately, violence has
gone from lower numbers to higher ones, the likes of which have never been seen before.
In 2018 almost seven times the people were killed than in 2012.
This is due to deadly changes.
When Guzman of the Sinaloa cartel was arrested in 2014, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel
tried to take its place leading to endless conflicts.
Also, in the past, drug cartels warred over the best ways to get drugs into the United
States.
Then, after 9/11 the US tightened border security, which had them digging underground tunnels
and encouraging them to find new markets locally.
This included Tijuana.
Now, conflicts, while still related to drugs, are also focused on local sales.
Sometimes dealers are killed so that someone else can sell on a certain street corner.
Addicted assassins will murder for a bit of meth.
The value of life in this area is small if nonexistent.
Morgues are so packed that employees use incense and air purifiers as well as offer masks for
those that visit.
However, there are times when bodies pile up across the floor and there’s nothing
that can mask the scent of death.
When it gets really bad, anyone who lives nearby can also smell it.
Even the new Mexican president with his anti-militaristic agenda found himself deploying a battalion
of soldiers to the Tijuana area.
He’s also formed a national guard that’s 70,000 people strong.
However, he claims it is a bit different from the past because the national guard can help
carry out criminal investigations.
Up until this point only 7% of Mexican crimes were properly investigated and 2% had convictions.
With statistics like these, it is easy to see that there is next to no deterrent for
those who engage in criminal activities.
Knowing what you know now, would you consider a trip to Brazil, Venezuela, or Mexico?
And, if so, would it bother you if you saw people gunned down in front of you?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called Most Dangerous Places In The World!
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!