International
Mexico has 20 of the 50 most violent cities in the world
The annual index of the Citizen Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice of 2024, presented this Wednesday in the Mexican capital, determined that of the 50 most violent cities in the world, 20 are in Mexico, including the tourist Acapulco (south) and the border Tijuana (northwest).
“The maximum number of violent cities in Mexico in the ranking so far had been in 2019, with 19 cities,” said José Antonio Ortega, president of the organization, at a press conference.
Likewise, Ortega stressed that of the 10 most violent cities in 2024, seven are in Mexico.
Port-au-Prince, in Haiti, leads the index, with 139.31 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the ‘Ranking 2024 of the 50 most violent cities in the world’.
Then, five Mexican cities continue the list, starting with Colima (west), which in 2022 and 2023 had topped the world index, and in 2024 recorded 126.95 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.
Immediately, there are the Acapulco tourist resort, with a rate of 102.28 homicides; Manzanillo (west), with 92.17; Tijuana, border with the United States, with 91.35; and Ciudad Obregón (north), with 89.2.
In the top 10 are also the Ecuadorian Machala, the Mexicans Celaya and Zamora, and Puerto España, in Trinidad and Tobago.
In contrast, in 2024, the Honduran San Pedro Sula and Distrito Central left the classification, which for several years were in the first places on the list.
“In this way, no city in Central America is among the 50 most violent in the world,” said René Bolio Halloran, of the Mexican Human Rights Commission.
Bolio pointed out that “to obtain these remarkable achievements, the respective governments did not use excuses, such as poverty, high drug consumption in developed nations or that criminals obtain weapons from the United States.”
“Nor did they resort to negotiating with those who caused the violence, nor did they follow the policy of ‘hugs, not bullets’, or something similar,” he added, referring to the phrase of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024).
Mexico closed 2024 with a total of 30,057 intentional homicides, a year-on-year increase of 1.2%, equivalent to 344 more cases compared to the 29,713 recorded in 2023, according to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP).
Among the violent cities in Mexico that re-entered the list is Culiacán (state of Sinaloa), where last September a war broke out between the main factions of the homonymous cartel, after the capture of capos Ismael ‘el Mayo’ Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López in the United States.
The Mexicans Chilpancingo, Villahermosa and Tapachula also entered, and remained on the list, Cuernavaca, Ciudad Juárez, Uruapan, Irapuato, Chihuahua, Zacatecas, León, Cancun and Morelia.
Followed by Mexico, the countries with the most cities in the index were Brazil (8), Colombia (6), South Africa (5), the United States (5), Ecuador (3), Haiti (1), Jamaica (1) and Trinidad and Tobago (1).
In addition, 45 of the 50 cities are in the American continent and the rest in Africa.
For his part, Horacio Rodríguez, of Misión Rescate Mexico, explained that the 50 cities total 40,198 homicides.
He added that this amount of homicides represents 8.2% of the 490,000 that the World Health Organization estimates to occur worldwide, while the sum of inhabitants of these cities represents only 0.91% of the world position.
Throughout Mexico, he said, the average homicide rate in 2024 “is nine times higher than the global average rate of 6.2, which gives an idea of the concentration of violence in the cities of this ranking.”
Finally, Ortega clarified that violence due to the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine is not included; and it does not include the missing people, which in 2024 in Mexico were more than 13,000, according to official figures.
International
Armed forces target illegal mines in Northern Ecuador with bombing raids
Ecuador’s Armed Forces carried out an operation on Monday — including airstrikes — against illegal mining in the town of Buenos Aires, in the country’s north, Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo reported.
The mountainous, gold-rich area has been a hotspot for illegal mining since 2017, located in the Andean province of Imbabura.
In 2019, former president Lenín Moreno deployed around 2,400 soldiers to the region in an attempt to curb the illegal activity. “The operation began with mortar fire, followed by gunfire and bombing runs by Supertucano aircraft,” Loffredo said in a video released by the Defense Ministry.
He added that the operation would continue on Tuesday with patrols across the area to locate possible members of “irregular armed groups that may have crossed from the Colombian border.”
The Armed Forces stated on X that the intervention focused on the “complete elimination of multiple illegal mining tunnels” in the areas known as Mina Nueva and Mina Vieja.
The operation coincided with the deployment of a military and police convoy into Imbabura, which has been the epicenter of protests against President Daniel Noboa since September 22, following his decision to scrap the diesel subsidy.
International
Caracas shuts embassy in Oslo without explanation following Machado’s Nobel win
Venezuela has announced the closure of its embassy in Norway, just days after opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Venezuelan diplomatic mission provided no explanation for its decision on Monday.
“It is regrettable,” a ministry spokesperson said. “Despite our differences on several issues, Norway wishes to keep the dialogue with Venezuela open and will continue to work in that direction.” The ministry also emphasized that the Nobel Committee operates entirely independently from the Norwegian government.
In its announcement, the Nobel Committee stated that Machado met the criteria established by Alfred Nobel, “embodying the hope for a different future, where the fundamental rights of Venezuelans are heard.”
International
Sheinbaum: Urgent to restore access to towns cut off by heavy rains
Thousands of military personnel and civilians in Mexico worked tirelessly on Tuesday to clear roads blocked by the torrential rains of recent days, which have left more than 300 communities cut off across central and eastern regions of the country. Authorities also launched mass fumigation efforts in several affected areas to prevent the spread of dengue fever.
The official death toll remains at 64, though dozens of people are still missing. President Claudia Sheinbaumacknowledged that the government does not yet know the full situation in many of the isolated villages, which range in population from 500 to 1,000 inhabitants.
“The reopening of roads is one of the greatest urgencies,” Sheinbaum said. “It’s essential to guarantee air bridges, food supplies, clean water, and a proper census of the isolated communities so we can determine the condition of every person living there.”
Private construction companies are also assisting the effort with heavy machinery and technical support to help reopen highways and reconnect rural areas.
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