Weekly Report - 26 April 2012 (WR-12-16)

GUATEMALA | Homicide rate continues to drop. Last week Mario Polanco, the head of the human rights NGO Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (GAM), told reporters that Guatemala’s murder rate decreased by 9.9% to 1,440 in the first quarter of 2012 when compared with the same period of 2011. Polanco attributed the drop to the security policy of President Otto Pérez Molina, which has so far involved putting the military back on the streets and creating new inter-institutional task forces. Yet it is worth noting that the murder rate was already on the decline under Pérez Molina’s centre-left predecessor, Alvaro Colom (2008-2012). In 2011 Guatemala’s murder rate stood at 39 per 100,000 inhabitants — high by any standards, but the lowest in Guatemala in seven years.

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