New Study: Latin America is in steep decline. Homicides and life expectancy getting worse

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The rising number of people being murdered across Latin America and the Caribbean is so high that the life expectancy in some of those countries is dropping, a new study claims.

Unlike the rest of the world where homicide rates have generally dropped, statistics in some countries show that the murder rate has skyrocketed in recent years. So much so, that Latin America now accounts for about a third of the world’s homicides, according to a new study from the Australian National University.

“These are worrying numbers,” the report’s lead author Vladimir Canudas-Romo told news.com.au. “We found major disparities in life expectancies in Latin American countries, particularly for men.”

The study shows that more than 2 million people aged 15-19 in Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) between 2005 and 2015 – with young men accounting for most of those deaths. The two most populated countries – Mexico and Brazil – account for the highest number of homicides in absolute numbers, however in El Salvador and Honduras in 2015 had a staggering rate of 109 and 64 homicides per 100,000 people, respectively.

“In relative terms, the LAC region has been ranked as the most dangerous in the world,” the study said.

“Despite Latin American countries having seen progress in most other major causes of death, such as reductions in cancer and cardiovascular disease, homicide is still affecting people’s lives so much that there is little progress in life expectancies, particularly among young men,” Canudas-Romo said.

Researchers said the increase of violence in the LAC region could be attributed to a number of different reasons, including political turmoil, the “war on drugs,” increased poverty and more. They said several strategies proposed to reduce these rates have had mixed results or downright failed.

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