UN warns of epidemic of gun deaths in Latin America
Nearly three-quarters of a million gun deaths occur each year in Latin America, says the UN, and Honduras and El Salvador have the highest rate of death by firearms in the world.
Some 740,000 people are killed by firearms in Latin America each year, most of them outside combat zones, according to UN figures announced at a conference in Lima.
Camilo Duplat, a representative of the United Nations Regional Center for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC), are killings carried out by organized crime or common crime.
According to the official, violence is reaching "epidemic levels" in Latin America due to the availability of firearms, of which there are 80 million in the region.
Duplat said that Honduras and El Salvador had the highest rate of death by firearms in the world, at 77 and 62 per 100,000 inhabitants, while Colombia and Venezuela had rates of 37 deaths by firearm per 100,000 people, and Mexico had 25.
It was not clear what year these figures applied to, but they seem to closely correspond to recent data about homicide statistics in some of these countries. In 2010, , and , according to official statistics. Mexico, however, had a rate of only .
If the UN statistics are correct, this could suggest that the rate of firearm deaths closely tracks that of murders, with only a small amount of non-overlap. However, Duplat also stated that 60 percent of killings in the region were carried out with firearms.
--- Hannah Stone is a writer for in the Americas, which provides research, analysis, and investigation of the criminal world throughout the region. Find all of her research .