Colombia’s homicide rate in 2012 has struck its lowest level in 27 years, according to the National Police on Monday.
“We closed the year with 14,670 homicides in 2012,” said the National Police commander, General Jose Roberto Leon. This absolute number of homicides in Colombia set the 2012 homicide rate at 31 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Compared to 2011, the rate dropped by 0.4 percentage point last year.
Over the last decade Colombia’s number of killings has steadily fallen while regional neighbors like Venezuela continue to suffer from a homicide rate above 40 and Mexico, whose homicide rate rose from 10 to 24 in the same period, copes with a dramatic increase of murders around the country.
According to the police, Colombia sliced its homicide rate by more than half after 1995 when the rate was set at 69.7.