The murder rate per capita in Colombian capital Bogota fell 0.9% in the first seven months of 2010 compared to the same period last year, though the total number of homicides rose, according to the city’s Government Secretariat.
Statistics released Thursday by national forensics agency Medicina Legal show that while the number of murders was up 3.6% in the first seven months of 2010 compared to the same period the previous year, with 938 cases, an increase in the population meant that the murder rate relative to population was down.
Bogota’s murder rate in January to July 2009 was 22.7 per 100,000 people, while the rate in the same period in 2010 was 21.8 per 100,000 people.
These statistics compare favorably to Colombian cities Medellin and Cali, which have murder rates of 62 and 73 respectively, according to a Mexican study released in January.
If homicides in Bogota continue at the same rate for the rest of the year, there will be 1,608 murders in 2010, a decrease from the 1,628 Medicina Legal recorded in 2009. The capital saw 1,466 murders in 2008 and 1,401 in 2007.
Firearms were the murder weapon in almost 60% of cases so far in 2010.
The district with the highest number of murders in Ciudad Bolivar, in southern Bogota.