Homicides in Colombia went up 2.34% between January and November 2019 compared to the same period the year before, according to the country’s medical examiner’s office.
In its monthly report, the medical examiner’s office said it had registered 10,468 homicides in the first 11 months of last year compared to 10,229 in 2018.
Homicide increased for a second consecutive year after reaching an all-time low in 2017.
With December historically being one of the year’s most violent months of the year, the increase of the official homicide rate that is presented later this year is likely to be higher.
Victims
The vast majority of homicide victims, 91.6%, are male.
In terms of age, homicides particularly begin victimizing Colombians between 15 and 19 and are more prevalent in the 20-24 age bracket.
More than half of the homicide victims between January and November were between 14 and 29.
Age of homicide victims
Source: Medical examiner’s office
Urban vs rural homicides
Cali, Colombia’s third largest city, continued to be Colombia’s most violent major city in regards to homicides with 964 registered homicides in the first 11 months.
The city did, however, register a 6.2% drop compared to the same period in 2018.
Medellin also saw homicides drop by 4.3% after initially registering a major spike due to a gang war in the west of the city.
The capital Bogota, historically a city with significantly lower homicide rates, saw no changes and registered 935 homicides both in the first 11 months of 2018 and 2019.
All 33 capital cities combined saw a slight drop.
Violence moving to the countryside
The relatively significant drop in major cities like Cali and Medellin indicate that the national increase in deadly violence is mainly due to violence in smaller cities and the countryside.
The state has historically been weak or absent in these areas.
The 2017 demobilization and disarmament of guerrilla group FARC, which controlled most of these areas while still in arms has made the state failures to maintain order and curb deadly violence particularly visible.
