Monday 27 January 2014

Bogotá attains "lowest murder rate in 30 years"

Colombia's capital Bogotá was said to have "stabilised" its lowered murder rate in 2013, after a significant fall over 2012-13 attributed to factors including effective policing and restrictions on carrying arms and drinking. Coroners were cited as counting 1,279 murders in Bogotá in 2013, four less than in 2012, which translated into a rate of 16.7 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, El Tiempo reported on 27 January. The rate was far below those of the continent's most dangerous cities for 2013. The last of a recently published list of the 50 most murderous cities in the world in 2013 was Valencia in Venezuela, with a killing rate of 30 per 100,000 inhabitants. El Tiempo cited a security specialist Jairo Libreros as saying that it was difficult for Bogotá's murder rate to fall much more immediately, given the significant fall from a rate of 22.1 to 16.9/100,000 over 2012-13. Authorities reportedly attributed 39 per cent of killing deaths in 2013 to "vengence" and 35 per cent to brawls, while firearms were responsible for 61.5 per cent of killings.