In 2002, before the violence
began to escalate, roughly 2,900 people were
killed. Last year, the total reached 6,033,
although international observers believe that it
could be as high as 8,000 (the National Civil
Police doesn't count people who are injured in
an attack but die later in hospital). Canada,
with a little less than three times Guatemala's
population of 13 million, had only 605 homicides
in 2006.
According to statistics kept by
the United Nations, there were 1.85 homicides in
Canada last year for every 100,000 people. The
U.S. figure was 5.7, while Russia, considered
one of the more dangerous countries in the
world, recorded 20. Guatemala's was almost 2½
times that: an estimated 47 per 100,000 people.
Every day on the streets of this city of 1.2
million, citizens are robbed at gunpoint. It
happens while they sit in their cars, and while
they ride the bus. Already this year, 76
Guatemalan bus drivers have been killed for
their cash boxes. The crime wave is so bad that
virtually every business in the city has armed
guards, some mere teenagers, who now outnumber
the police 3 to 1.
To read Gary Mason’s columns on
Guatemala
www.globeandmail.ca or
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