Four of the five most violent cities in the world outside war zones are in Mexico, according to a study by a Mexican non-governmental organization.

With a homicide rate of just over 138 per 100,000 residents last year, Tijuana, Baja California, was the most violent city in Mexico and the world in 2018, the Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice said.

Acapulco, Guerrero, ranked as the second most violent city in the world; Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, was fourth; and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, was fifth. Caracas, Venezuela, was the only city outside Mexico in the top five most violent.

A further 11 Mexican cities were included among the 50 most violent in the world as a result of their per-capita homicide rate in 2018.

Irapuato, Guanajuato, ranked sixth; Cancún, Quintana Roo, 13th; Culiacán, Sinaloa, 16th; Uruapan, Michoacán, 18th; Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, 20th; Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, 26th; Celaya, Guanajuato, 32nd; Ensenada, Baja California, 34th; Tepic, Nayarit, 36th; Reynosa, Tamaulipas, 42nd; and Chihuahua, Chihuahua, 49th.

Mexico has the highest number of cities on the list, with 15, followed by Brazil with 14 and Venezuela with six. All but eight of the cities among the 50 most violent are in Latin America.

Citizens’ Council president José Antonio Ortega highlighted that three Mexican cities that featured in the 2017 rankings – Los Cabos and La Paz in Baja California Sur and Mazatlán in Sinaloa – are no longer on the list.

Ortega said that homicide rates had fallen sharply in both La Paz and Los Cabos but not due to any public security policy implemented by authorities but rather because the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) has driven its rivals out of the area.

The Citizens’ Council gathered homicide statistics from a range of different sources including the National Public Security System (SNSP) in the case of Mexico.

There were more than 33,000 homicides in Mexico last year, according to the SNSP, making 2018 the most violent year on record.

Source: El Economista (sp)