There were a total of 5,802 murders in Honduras in 2014, down 9.7% on the previous year (629 fewer murders in absolute terms). By contrast, the bald figures for 2014 made for grim reading in El Salvador. In 2014 there were 3,942 murders, according to the supreme court’s institute of legal medicine (IML), an increase of 57% over 2013. This brings El Salvador up to a murder rate equivalent to 61.6 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants which, given the fall in Honduras, means that unless President Salvador Sánchez Cerén gets a grip on the situation fast El Salvador could displace Honduras as ‘murder capital of the world’ by this time next year.
Sánchez Cerén recognised that the number of homicides had risen dramatically but he has ruled out any negotiations with the country’s mara gangs along the lines of the ‘truce’ struck in 2012 which had brought the number of homicides tumbling down.
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