Latin America’s safest places are no longer safe

Although homicide rates in Latin America have persistently been at or near the top in global rankings, a few countries always stood out as islands of tranquility, with low crime figures that contrasted with the alarming numbers elsewhere in the region.

That no longer seems to be the case, as small and relatively peaceful nations such as Uruguay and Costa Rica have seen a steady uptick in violence that is changing public perceptions and putting crime back on the political agenda.

While Latin America saw a slight drop in homicide rates in 2022, clocking in at 16.4 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants thanks to the sustained decline in murders in some of Central America’s most violent nations such as Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, those at the bottom have moved in the opposite direction, seeing their rates double or triple over recent decades.

These violence surges are seemingly caused by the same reasons that are behind the destabilization of other Latin American nations: drug trafficking and the bloody feuds linked to the narcotics trade.

In the case of Costa Rica, a democratically stable and green-friendly OECD member that even dismantled its Armed Forces in 1948, focusing instead on developing its education, public health and welfare protections, things took a particularly dark turn in 2022, when the country hit an all-time high in homicides. 

Official data shows that 656 people were killed last year, a 12 percent jump compared with 2021. Per capita, homicides have more than tripled since the 1990s, from 4 per 100,000 inhabitants per year to almost 13.

Official stats show that the epicenter of the current crisis is the department of Limón, where its homonymous port capital last year registered five times the national homicide rate.

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