The Oceans Beyond Piracy 2017 report has attracted a lot of attention in Latin America and the Caribbean because of its headline figure of a 163% increase in incidents of piracy over 2016. And, indeed, the 71 recorded incidents surpassed the notorious hotspot of East Africa, where there were 54 incidents in total (a comparatively modest 100% increase over 2016. But this is grossly misleading. The economic cost of Somali piracy in 2017 was calculated to be US$1.4bn; the cost of Latin American and Caribbean piracy was not fully calculated “due to the complexity”, but the total of goods stolen was put at less than US$1m. Another point of interest is that all but three of the recorded incidents (one each in Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil) were recorded in the Caribbean.End of preview - This article contains approximately 798 words.
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