The city averages around three homicides every day. For two straight years, this alleged hotspot for crime has topped a Mexican think tank’s list of the top 50 most violent cities.
A police officer inspects tattoos on a Mara Salvatrucha gang member after his arrest in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. A wave of violence has made Honduras among the most dangerous places on Earth.
San Pedro Sula might be the most dangerous place on earth.
Around three people are intentionally murdered every day in the northwest Honduran city--that’s around 169 homicides per 100,000 residents. These grim statistics place it at the very top of a list of the 50 most violent cities, making San Pedro Sula the alleged murder capital of the world two years in a row.
The data was compiled by the Citizen Council for Public Security, Justice, and Peace, a Mexican think tank. The organization used intentional homicide statistics from 2012 to draw comparisons, focusing on cities in North, Central, and South America. Middle Eastern cities were not included.
Around three people are intentionally murdered every day in the northwest Honduran city--that’s around 169 homicides per 100,000 residents. These grim statistics place it at the very top of a list of the 50 most violent cities, making San Pedro Sula the alleged murder capital of the world two years in a row.
The data was compiled by the Citizen Council for Public Security, Justice, and Peace, a Mexican think tank. The organization used intentional homicide statistics from 2012 to draw comparisons, focusing on cities in North, Central, and South America. Middle Eastern cities were not included.
The relatives of a murdered public transportation driver grieve at the crime scene where he was shot dead in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The country's homicide rate is roughly 20 times that of the U.S., according to a 2011 United Nations report.
Second to San Pedro Sula was the Mexican city of Acapulco. Caracas, Venezuela has the dubious distinction of being number three.
Thirty-nine of the 50 cities on the list are in Latin America.
A forensic official prepares an autopsy report outside the morgue of a public hospital in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Due to difficulties obtaining information from Honduran officials, the think tank decided to use last year’s homicide figures for San Pedro Sula. The authors of the report defended their decision, writing that it if there had been a drop--however small--Honduran authorities would have been quick to publicize it.
Inmates gather outside their cells in San Pedro Sula Central Corrections Facility in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Inside one of Honduras' most dangerous and overcrowded prisons, inmates operate a free-market bazaar, selling everything from iPhones to prostitutes. Guards do not cross into the inner sanctum controlled by prisoners and prisoners do not breach the perimeter controlled by guards.
Another possible reason for San Pedro Sula’s appearance on top of the list is that Mexico’s war on drugs and the United States’ deportation of criminal immigrants is pushing crime south.
Law enforcement teams in Honduras lack the resources to monitor this deluge, CNN reports.
But some San Pedro Sula residents are rejecting their alleged claim to fame.
A police officer patrols in the back of a police truck in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Business owners said that people who are murdered in other places are taken to San Pedro Sula’s morgue and added to the city’s homicide statistics. They told CNN that the list is hurting local businesses.
Comparing international intentional homicide rates is a tricky task, since countries have different ways of defining murder and collecting data.
A 2011 report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime also listed Honduras as the country with the highest homicide rate. In that analysis, the country of El Salvador came in second and Africa's Cote d'Ivoire came in third
