Colombia’s homicide rate has dropped by 8% in the first four months of 2011, compared with the same period last year, according to police statistics.
To date, 4,469 homicides have occurred in 2011, 335 less than the number that occurred in the first four months of 2010, accounting for the 8% difference, which is a more significant difference than registered in the two previous years, Caracol Radio reported Friday.
According to the same document, in the four cities of Pereira, Cartagena, Cucuta and Medellin, 130 less violent deaths occurred than in the same months of 2010.
However, in Cali, a city which a recent report by the coroner’s office pegged as the “most violent” area of the country, the murder rate actually rose as compared with last year.
Although the actual murder rate has gone down, according to statistics from a branch of the Vice President’s office, in a comparative chart of the January-March period of 2010 and 2011, the numbers of kidnappings and victims of massacres have both increased on the year.
