by Allan Wall
The Insight Crime website has published its list of homicide rates for mainland Latin American countries (not including the Caribbean islands).
At 50.9 homicides per 100,000, Ecuador had the highest murder rate in Latin America.
See my previous article Mexican Cartels Wreak Havoc in Ecuador and note that the Ecuadorian government is now working closely with the Trump administration to crush the cartels in that South American country.
The second-highest murder rate in Latin America belongs to Brazil, at 19.2 per 100,000,
followed by Guatemala at 17.4, Costa Rica at 16.8 and then Mexico at 15.4
The website has another list for the Caribbean islands and Belize and Guyana. The highest murder rate in that region is Haiti at 68 per 100,000, followed by Turks and Caicos at 57.6.
Those lists are national homicide rates.
There’s another group that calculates murder rates by city.
The Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y la Justicia Penal (Citizen Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice) is a Mexican NGO. You can visit its website here.
Each year, it releases a list of the world’s 50 most violent cities.
The list does not include cities located in war zones.
To qualify for the list, a metropolitan area must have at least 300,000 inhabitants.
Calculations are based on the rate of homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.
This 2025 list has been published, and 44 of the 50 most violent cities on the planet are in the Western Hemisphere. The other six are in South Africa.
Taking the top spot is the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, with 6,185 homicides, which was 197.43 per 100,000 inhabitants.
In the 2024 report, Port-au-Prince was also the most violent city, with 4263 homicides, which was 139.31 per 100,000 inhabitants. So there’ve been more murders there than the previous year. In the 2023 report, Port-au-Prince was the third most violent city.
In second place in the 2025 list was Babahoyo, Ecuador. That city’s population is only 317,436 so its 527 homicides gave it a rate of 166.02 homicides per 100,000.
Babahoyo was followed by #3 Mandela Bay, South Africa; #4 Machala, Ecuador; and #5 Quevedo, Ecuador.
The most violent Mexican city on the list was Culiacan, Sinaloa, at #6. Culiacan had 1,086 homicides, 103.91 per 100,000.
Culiacan’s state of Sinaloa is the scene of the ongoing intra-cartel war pitting La Mayiza faction, led by the son of “El Mayo” Zambada, against the Chapitos, sons of “El Chapo” Guzman. According to the Noroeste newspaper report of March 17th, 2026, the murder toll in Sinaloa state since the intra-cartel war began on September 9th, 2024 to March 16th, 2026, is 2,973, an average of 5.4 daily.
Overall, Mexico had 17 cities on the list. However, that’s down from 20 cities last year.
Also, in the 2024 list, Mexico had 7 cities on the Top Ten most violent of the list. This year it had 2 cities on the Top Ten.
Other countries on the list are Colombia with 8 cities, Ecuador with 7 cities, Brazil with 6 cities, South Africa with 6, and 1 city apiece in Guatemala and the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago.
What about the United States of America?
There are three U.S. cities on the 2025 list. Last year, though, there were 5 U.S. cities on the list.
In 2025, the most violent city in the U.S.A. was New Orleans, with 121 homicides, at a rate of 33.36 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. It was #41 on the list. From 2024 to 2025, New Orleans dropped from 34.05 per 100,000 to 33.36 per 100,000.
Cleveland was #43. It had a worse rate than in 2024 (30.33 in 2024 to 32.30 in 2025).
Memphis was #46. In 2024, Memphis had a homicide rate of 48.01 per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2025 it was 30.12. That’s an improvement.
If you’d like to see the entire list, click here then scroll down to where it says “2025 COMUNICADO DE PRENSA 50 CIUDADES MAS VIOLENTAS DEL MUNDO” and
“Descargar archivo” (download file).
by Allan Wall for Mexico News Report
Source: Mexico News Report
