A report published on 26 January by local think-tank, Observatorio Fundación Propuestas (Fundapro), shows that there were record levels of violent crime in Uruguay in 2015. The report found that 2015 set a ‘‘historic record’’ in the number of homicides since the government began systematically recording such data in 1980. Fundapro, which has ties to centre-right opposition Partido Colorado (PC) party, used information published in the press to count and catalogue homicides, and it argues that while this leaves room for error, the risk of under-reporting is greater than the risk of over-reporting of crime. Either way the release of…

Since the start of the year, there has been a revival of violence in the southern Bío Bío, Araucanía, and Los Ríos Regions – where the indigenous Mapuche lay claim to ancestral lands. The Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM), one of the most radical Mapuche organisations, has already claimed responsibility for some of the incidents which come despite renewed efforts by the Nueva Mayoría national government led by President Michelle Bachelet to address the problem. On 28 January a group of some 20 masked individuals ambushed a Carabineros police patrol on land belonging to the forestry authorities in Lanco commune, in…

Both São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro published statistics in January showing some significant decreases in crime. Homicide in the state of São Paulo fell to its lowest level since 1996, falling to 8.6 per 100,000. This meant that for the first time since this data set began, the murder rate had fallen below the threshold of 10 per 100,000, considered an “epidemic” level of violence by the UN. In the city of Rio de Janeiro, homicides rates also fell to their lowest level since 1994, to 18.6 per 100,000. While both results are praiseworthy, there are a number of…

Until recently, security concerns in the run-up to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro were dominated by fears that the historically high levels of violence in the city would impact upon the 2016 Games. Added to this were the usual fears that the event might make an inviting target for terrorist organisations, despite Brazil’s lack of obvious enemies. But these major concerns have been swept aside in recent weeks following the panic over the spread of the Zika virus, linked to a surge in cases of microcephaly, a kind of infant brain damage, in Brazil. Personnel Around 85,000 security personnel…