When police found the body of Marcela Graciano, a 31-year-old Colombian DJ, last Thursday, the brutality of the crime shocked even them. Her body, found in a house in Medell n Colombia's second city, revealed signs of torture and her hands had been tied behind her back.
Col Rolfy Mauricio Jim nez, the local police chief, said the body was in an advanced state of decomposition. The Valle de Aburr municipality has had 11 murders this year, authorities said.
According to Risk analysis firm Verisk Maplecroft, Graciano's brutal killing is part of a larger surge of crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, with new research showing that nearly two-thirds of the world's most dangerous cities are in Latin America. Kabul in Afghanistan and Mogadishu in Somalia are ranked as the world's most dangerous places.
The research, released on Thursday, found that the region's role in the transnational trafficking of narcotics and the strength of sophisticated drug-trafficking organisations and gangs is the key factor underpinning Latin America's risk profile.
The study used data from crime such as homicides, theft and property damage terrorism, civil unrest and conflict, and found that eight of the 12 cities that receive the worst possible score are in Latin America.
Medell n was believed to have turned a corner after being associated with the violence of the 1980s and 90s when Pablo Escobar feared Medell n cartel ruled swathes of the city and terrorised civilians and the police. Pedro Piedrah ta Bustamante, a professor of political science at the University of Medell n, said that Medell n is a nucleus of transnational crime networks and that is why it shows in this type of study. Despite all the transformations of the last decades, negative indicators of crime persist in the city. Bogot, Colombia's capital, was flagged by Verisk Maplecroft as one of the top three riskiest of the world's 30 largest cities, along with Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and Mexico City.
Juana San Mart n, who was recently robbed at knifepoint in Bogot outside her home, sees the neighbourhood through different eyes. A friend who was with her at the time was beaten and knocked to the ground. It brings into reality that all of the stories you hear about in the news are happening. Some cities in Venezuela, which have been racked by widespread crime and political instability, are also highly positioned, including Barquisimeto, Caracas, Maracaibo, Maracay and Valencia.
Port-au- Prince, the capital of Haiti, has been embroiled in gang-related violence for years, and is also ranked as a high on the list. The situation in the Caribbean country deteriorated further last year when Jovenel Mo se was assassinated in his home in circumstances that remain murky, leaving a power vacuum that is still violently contested.
A series of kidnappings, robberies and turf wars have resulted in a number of people fleeing their homes for makeshift shelters.
More than 150 people have been killed in recent weeks in gunfights between warring gangs in Haiti, while M decins Sans Fronti res MSF said earlier this month it had treated more than 96 people with gunshot wounds in its medical facilities in Port-au- Prince since April 24.
It's possible to get killed or kidnapped when you leave your house, Coriolande Auguste, who fled to the escalating violence, told the Guardian on a visit to the Martissant neighbourhood in the Haitian capital last October.