The Bogota murder rate during the first few months of 2010 was up 5.4% compared to the same time frame in 2009, while overall crime rates have dropped.
According to a report from the mayor’s office in Bogota, the city has seen 252 murders so far in 2010, compared with 239 in the same time period in 2009, reports El Espectador.
The murder rate jumped from 20.4 murders per 100,000 residents in 2008, to 22.7 in 2009, an increase that has worried the authorities.
Overall, however, murder rates have dropped dramatically in Bogota since the turn of the millennium; the city had a rate of 37.7 murders per 100,000 residents in the year 2000.
The report also delivered some good news for Bogota, showing that “high-impact crimes have dropped since 2008 by 7.8%,” and that “the number of direct victims of a crime fell from 18% of the total population to 8%.”