According to a new UN report, one in every 30 murders in the world happens in Colombia.
Bogotá ranks 15th among the capitals with the highest death rates in America, behind historically more peaceful cities such as San Jose, Costa Rica and Panama City.
In the last decade, Colombia has gone from being the country with the highest homicide rate in the hemisphere to fifth place in ranking, behind Honduras, Belize, El Salvador and Venezuela.
The data is part of a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which measures the progress and setbacks of all the countries in the world that face this type of violence.
Although the national homicide rate in Colombia, which is at 32 per 100,000 inhabitants, is far from what could be considered a ‘normal’ country, it is encouraging when compared to what was experienced between 1991 and 1993, when the murder rate verged on 90 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
The report is based on figures from 2012, and states that in that year 437,000 people were murdered around the world. At least three out of 10 of them died in the Americas.
Although the record indicates that Colombia has 13,000 murders less than a decade ago, experts are still worried that one in 30 murders in the world occur in Colombia.
However, according to police statistics, the number of homicides in the country continues to decrease. While in 2012 there were 16,033 murders, in 2013 the number fell to 14,782.
