For the past fifteen years, global headlines have depicted, through harrowing imagery, the effects of war on cities across the Middle East. An inevitable fracturing of law and order leads to an explosion of crime which we imagine could not be tolerated in a region at peace. However, when cities in war zones are set aside, an overwhelming yet underreported narrative emerges – 86% of the world’s most dangerous cities are in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Although it accounts for only 8% of the world’s population, one in three global homicides occur in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Homicide Observatory at the Igarapé Institute in Brazil warns that fourteen of the twenty countries with the highest homicide rates are in Latin America, while the Citizen's Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice (CCSPJP) in Mexico reports that 43 of the 50 most dangerous cities in the world are located in the region.
With the absence of war, cities in Latin America and the Caribbean suffer from a different plight. Writing for the World Economic Forum, Robert Muggah of the Igarapé Institute notes that Latin American cities are “the most unequal on the planet”, with almost one in five people living in slums. While an elite benefit from expanding economies, millions are left without potable water (15% in the Dominican Republic), electricity (18% in Nicaragua) and sewerage (39% in Bolivia).
