Caracas World's Most Violent City: Report

Caracas World's Most Violent City: Report

[link to www.insightcrime.org]

Venezuela's capital city of Caracas has reportedly overtaken Honduras' San Pedro Sula to become the most violent city in the world, marking a shifting dynamic in homicide rates in Latin America's urban centers.

The year 2014 saw the city of Caracas hold the title of most violent city in the world, according to the annual ranking of the world's 50 most violent cities published by the Mexican non-governmental organization the Citizen's Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice (Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y la Justicia Penal - CCSPJP).

Caracas' homicide rate rose slightly from about 116 per 100,000 people in 2014 to about 120 in 2015 -- or 3,946 murders in a city of almost 3.3 million inhabitants. At the same time, in the city of San Pedro Sula in Honduras -- which had topped the list consistently from 2011 until last year -- the murder rate fell from about 170 in 2014 to 111 in 2015.