Cali authorities say the murder rate in Colombia’s third largest city went up 11 percent in the first seven months of 2009.
The city’s Metropolitan Police reported 911 assassinations until August 2. In the same period last year 814 people were murdered. The city authorities are now dealing with an average of five murders a day.
Cali Police chief Gustavo Adolfo Ricaurte told local newspaper El Pais the increase of murders can not be compared to Medellin, where gang wars cause a soaring murder rate and the city already saw more murders in the first months of 2009 than in 2008.
According to Ricaurte, the majority of murders in Cali are committed because of retaliations or social intolerance.
All three major cities in Colombia reported a sharp increase of violent crime in 2009.