UNODC Global Study on Homicide 2023 - HOMICIDE AND ORGANIZED CRIME IN

Anti-gang crackdowns22 and the imprisonment of more than 72,000 alleged gang members since the implementation of the state of emergency in March 202223 are credited by the Government for the sharp decline in the homicide rate in El Salvador.24 Elsewhere, Mexico’s high homicide rate of 26.1 per 100,000 decreased slightly from 2021 to 2022.25 An exception to the decreasing trend in Central America i. [...] In 2022, for example, the Honduran authorities declared a state of emergency in over half the country,75 which was extended in 2023.76 Following the extension of the state of emergency, OHCHR urged authorities in Honduras to reinforce the internal and external oversight of military operations in the country.77 El Salvador also introduced a state of emergency in 2022 to fight the gangs MS-13 and Ba. [...] One explanation for the concentrated age- and sex-specific decrease in the Americas between 2015 and 2021 is that homicide related to organized crime – the predominant homicide type in the Americas –94tends primarily to affect young men, and a decrease in organized crime-related homicide may have affected the decrease in the number of young male homicide victims. [...] Information collected online by Colombia’s Femicide Observatory showed a decrease in the number of such killings of women in April and May 2020 (monthly average of 29), both compared with during the first quarter of the year (monthly average of 42) and during April and May 2019 (monthly average of 62).100Subsequently, however, the number of “femicides” gradually increased during the rest of the lo. [...] Nonetheless, the number of “femicide” cases increased substantially in 2021.110 The decrease in the number of homicides during the lockdown period can be attributed to the restrictions of mobility and economic activities, which hindered the capacity and opportunities of criminal groups to commit murder and engage in extortion.