This will be the third consecutive year in which Costa Rica surpasses the rate of 10 homicides per every 100 thousand people, rate which the World Health Organization already considers as an epidemic.

In 2015 the country registered a total of 557 homicides and in 2016 this number was of 578. So far this year there’s been 528 homicides and the Ministry of Public Security estimates it will reach 566.

These three years have been the most violent since 2010 when the number of homicides reached 527.

Considering the country’s population according to the latest census, Costa Rica has been averaging a murder rate of approximately 11.8 killings per every 100,000 people. Although alarming, the numbers are considerably lower in comparison to other Latin American countries, in the year 2016 El Salvador registered 103 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants; Honduras 57.1; Venezuela 91.8; Jamaica 45; Brazil 26; Guatemala 30.70; Colombia 25; Dominican Republic 17; Puerto Rico 16 and Mexico 13.0+

Homicides related to organized crime accounts for close to 70% of the total number of murders out of these the majority of the victims are male between the ages of 18 and 39 years of age.