Caracas gun destruction (courtesy chinadaily.com)

“The 50 most dangerous cities in the world have been named and shamed, and an astonishing 21 of them are in Brazil,” dailymail.co.uk observes. [Full list after the jump.] “Latin America features highly in the ranking, released by Mexico’s Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, home to some 41 of the cities listed.” I’m not entirely sure that the numbers collated by the MCCPSCJ are trustworthy, but according to this org, the top of the pops, the world’s most murder intensive city is . . .

Caracas, Venezuela.

Hang on. Isn’t that the same Venezuela that banned civilian gun ownership in 2012? That confiscated and destroyed tens of thousands of guns (as above)? The country where “strict” gun control means that bad guys kill cops to take their guns? Huh. Anyway . . .

The list doesn’t just include Latin America, with U.S. cities St Louis, Baltimore, Detroit and New Orleans also featuring.

Wait. Where’s Chicago? In Illinois. obvs. Chicago proper has a low per capita murder rate. Combine the associated areas and it would make the homicide hit parade. I wonder if Detroit will come off this list as concealed carry kicks in.

1. Caracas, Venezuela – 119.87

2. San Pedro Sula, Honduras – 111.03

3. San Salvador, El Salvador – 108.54

4. Acapulco, Mexico – 104.73

5. Maturin, Venezuela – 86.45

6. Distrito Central, Honduras – 73.51

7. Valencia, Venezuela – 72.31

8. Palmira, Colombia – 70.88

9. Cape Town, South Africa – 65.53

10. Cali, Colombia – 64.27

11. Cuidad Guayana, Venezuela – 62.33

12. Fortaleza, Brazil – 60.77

13. Natal, Brazil – 60.66

14. Salvador, Brazil – 60.63

15. St Louis, Missouri, U.S. – 59.23

16. Joao Pessoa, Brazil – 58.40

17. Culiacan, Mexico – 56.09

18. Maceio, Brazil – 55.63

19. Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. – 54.98

20. Barquisimeto, Venezuela – 54.96

21. Sao Luis, Brazil – 53.05

22. Cuiaba, Brazil – 48.52

23. Manaus, Brazil – 47.87

24. Cumana, Venezuela – 47.77

25. Guatemala City, Guatemala – 47.17

26. Belem, Brazil – 45.83

27. Feira de Santana, Brazil – 45.5

28. Detroit, Michigan, U.S. – 43.89

29. Goiania, Brazil – 43.38

30. Teresina, Brazil – 42.64

31. Vitoria, Brazil – 41.99

32. New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. – 41.44

33. Kingston, Jamaica – 41.14

34. Gran Barcelona, Venezuela – 40.08

35. Tijuana, Mexico – 39.09

36. Vitoria da Conquista, Brazil – 38.46

37. Recife, Brazil – 38.12

38. Aracaju. Brazil – 37.7

39. Campos dos Goytacazes, Brazil – 36.16

40. Campina Grande, Brazil – 36.04

41. Durban, South Africa – 35.93

42. Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa – 35.85

43. Porto Alegre, Brazil – 34.73

44. Curitiba, Brazil – 34.71

45. Pereira, Colombia – 32.58

46. Victoria, Mexico – 30.50

47. Johannesburg, South Africa – 30.31

48. Macapa, Brazil – 30.25

49. Maracaibo, Venezuela – 28.85

50. Obregon, Mexico – 28.29

[h/t OneIfByLand1776]

72 COMMENTS

    • I lived in Brazil for a few years and promptly purchased my first firearm upon my return to the United States. Never again will I go unarmed.

      That said other than the violence I loved Brazil and would go back if things get cleaned up. The people couldn’t have been nicer and not everyone there agrees with the near total ban on civilian firearms ownership.

    • I certainly could die happy after some quality time with some Brazilian women. It beats living with the after effects.

    • In SP and RJ at least you get by by living in a fortified and guarded apartment building compound and driving a blindado (an armored car). Right now at least in SP and RJ its more of a car robbery issue than a kidnapping issue so its got that going for it over places like Mexico City.

      Of note, most of the really dangerous parts of Brazil (with the exception of Porto Alegre) are in the north where the sugar cane slave plantations used to exist. Correlation …. Nah. In the south (Parana, Rio Grand do Sul and Santa Catarina) it is generally safer and has more of a northern Europe-ish “vibe” (hint-hint, nudge-nudge). BTW, that’s where most of the really hot Brazilian models come from too, so its got that going for it.

        • It’s not racism, it’s simple demographic observations. Where you see “black”, I see a higher incidence of poverty and major cultural deficiencies. The color of the skin isn’t the cause (that would be true racism). It’s just correlative.

        • It’s not racism when there actually is a connection even if the reason for the connection isn’t given. The connection may or may not be not causal to the violence but it is connected and must be at least acknowledged in order to have any hope of being understood. Hypersensitivity to observations of reality wasn’t something I expected from a sock monkey but you never can tell anymore. Some sock puppet types might do better if they paid more attention to the content of people’s statements rather than the callous tone of them.

    • These cities are a good example of the inherent fallacy of gun-control ideology. Despite draconian laws being passed which restrict gun-ownershiop, smugglers find it quite easy to bring all manner of contraband including, of course guns of all kinds, into each of these cities. Guns may be illegal but, for the right money, anything is available from smugglers. Friends in Mexico for instance (very, very wealthy friends, btw) have superbly armed and trained security, all of whom routinely carry better—although highly illegal—arms than the police, the military or even the cartels. Gun-control laws, of course, are not intended to actually control guns; their real purpose is to disempower law-abiding citizens.

    • Where are Australia and the UK represented with their draconian gun laws? 4 US cities on the list, but none from the commonwealth? Even after the latest school shooting in Canada.

  1. If the left gets its way, which is to ban firearm ownership by private citizens, stop sending violent criminals to prison and discourage the police from controlling them, I would expect the major cities in the US to make their way onto this list.

  2. Sean Penn needs to move to Venezuela where he can enjoy being in a gun free paradise with his Communist buddies and gal pals.
    This article must be fiction as we all know that guns are bad and Latin America has lots of goodie gun control which always works and totally eliminates crime.

  3. This is what happens when you misidentified the actual problem and blame an inanimate object. You get cities like this.

  4. Too bad, I never visited central or South America, and looks like I won’t be going in the next 50 years either (Mexico rapidly approaching no-go, sadly). Looks like it might be prudent to secure our borders as the population crush is sure to push north more rapidly.

    • That is the most amazing collection of zip guns that I have ever seen. Where & when was that photo taken?

      Must be Third World. Gangstas here have the most up to date handguns that drug money can buy

      • These counties don’t have the river of iron flowing into them. Small poor places the USG and CIA don’t care about, because there is no benfit for/from them,hence no USA iron.

  5. Note to anti gunners, the majority of guns in the above picture are home made. Unregistered, no background checks or safeties to protect the children, concealable and deadly. Another stack of rules, laws or opinions will not stop home made manufacturing of arms.

  6. The Caracas crime rate might be a bit exaggerated because the population is always under-counted. The government is incompetent and simply cannot keep up with population changes, or even do basic math.

    The San Pedro Sula crime rate is probably much higher because of under-reporting of crimes. Having MS 13 enforcers on every street will do that. And Honduras, as we all know, is Spanish for “How Do You Endure This?”

  7. There must be some type of war time exemption. I’m thinking places like Kabul, Damascus, Baghdad, Mosul, Raqqa, and few choice cities from Yemen would at least make the list.

  8. I doubt legalized concealed carry is going to make any more of a difference in Detroit than it already has. For one thing, it’s been around for a while now. More importantly, I think, most murders (especially in places like Detroit) are criminal-on-criminal, so changing what honest people are allowed to do doesn’t change much.

    • Criminal on criminal murder (aka misdemeanor murder) is never going to change in large cities controlled by narcos or statist politicos. All you can do is shake your head when a convicted druggie gets elected as mayor or an alderman has to be sworn in behind bars.

  9. Having been to San Pedro Sula, San Salvador, and Tegucigalpa many times for months at a time, I can assure you there are guns every where. Armed guards in front of every major store and protecting 18 wheelers, busses, and trucks full of bananas or corn. Saw tons of gun stores in San Salvador and lots of people with ak’s and some crazy full auto stuff in the El Salvador country side. Not so much in Honduras though.

    Had one run in with a gang but they are scared shitless of a group of gringos of military age wearing dark sunglasses and loose fitting untucked shits walking around bad parts of the city (we were lost) and carrying large black cases and wearing big backpacks.

    I asked our local guide why and he said they thought we were CIA lol. We were just there to run a clinic 🙂

    • The bars at the Marriott and Intercontinental Hotels in each of those cities are easily the most heavily armed, and politest, places in town.

    • I can see it now, slow mo, walking just out of step,somebody spits out a toothpick, glint from the sunglasses frame……… ala’ Tarantino. Cool story.

  10. I’ve been to only 11 of these. Clearly I’m getting out of touch. Time to head down to Brazil and go a bit further off the beaten path…

    • STL is the most dangerous city to be a black male, 14-44, dealing drugs, most generally living on the Northside.

      That’s the homicide rate. They seldom kill whites, they seldom venture out of their ‘hood. They sometimes kill innocent blacks in drive-bys.

      That’s your murder “risk” in STL. Occasionally they will drive around, and shoot at each other in cars (brilliant!), but other than that, the murder ‘problem” is contained to a rather tiny amount of land, in a very large area. Don’t live there, don’t sell drugs there. Voila!

  11. Wait a minute, no “gun crazy” Texas? Where everybody carries a firearm and itching to use them? One shooting in Tx, and the whole state is full of “gun nuts”. Chicago has more people shot in a weekend than we do in a year (as someone once pointed out, maybe we miss a lot). I guess it’s what people consider normal. obama has said something to the effect that other countries don’t have the problem with firearms as the US does, or the frequency. Maybe he mis-spoke? Never thought firearms were the problem, I thought it was the criminals. (negligent firearm owners a close second.)

    • No doubt the figures do not take into account the tidal wave of violence Texas is not experiencing as a result of recent changes in the “open carry” law there.

  12. Chicago may be dangerous but it’s dangerous in America, which is no where near as dangerous as Brazil.

    You know, that country with much more gun control then us…

  13. Chicago didnt make the list because it wont report its data in the FBI format, so it doesnt get added in by lazy Brits at dailymail:

    “The ranking only takes into account cities with a population of more than 300,000, and doesn’t include deaths in combat zones or cities with unavailable data”

    Get GREAT stats on Obama’s hometown here:
    http://heyjackass.com/

    Note DC is on track to make this list, too:
    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/31/homicides-increase-54-washington-d-c/

  14. Oh believe me Chicago IS dangerous as hell. I lived there, quit roaming the south and westsides(and Rogers Park is going to shite) because of all the 14year olds shooting up the place. Just today they had their 3rd(4th?) highway/expressway/Lake Shore Drive drive-by wildwest shooting- In January… And they are broke now with no state bailout…Brazil is totaly flucked for their Olympics. Violence,Zika virus and pandemic pollution. Great combo.

    • 6th actually now. I saw it on the news this afternoon. Think about that…..6 highway shootings in this month already. The Chi is getting off to a banging start for 2016.

    • mostly dangerous for honor students on social media.
      and there’s an enormous distinction between east and west rogers park.
      east has always been more culturally diverse.

      • I’ve been in East and West Rogers Park-it all sucks now. Done a LOT of business at Direct auction and had a girlfriend who lived off Sheridan rd.(a while ago). Lived in an apartment on North Kenmore. I will NEVER live in the shitehole Chi-town again…my son had skin problems several years ago and took him to Obamas old Hyde Park hood(Comer)-it’s a freakin’ war zone to get there from the Dan Ryan. I cannot explain well enough how bad the city is( to outsiders).

        • so you’re saying that you venture over to 7300 n. western on tuesday nights? stop in across the street at 7301 (on the corner at chase st.). whatever you and yours want is on me. pretty good chow. ask for the guy with the rusty old motorcycle. or meat. or pickles.
          i’m an old friend of the putz sisters (i’m assuming… revco et.al).
          and kenmore/ eastlake terrace/ jonquil terrace is a whole different world from this side of ridge. although there are more condo quality rib tips since the towers came down.

  15. I seem to recall that our esteemed President Obama once said that gun violence just doesn’t occur outside of the US.

  16. Yikes… I grew up in Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela (#11) as an American expatriate. Back then (1968 – 1979) it was very “safe.” Sad to see what has happened to that country.

  17. I’m from St. Louis, the first US city on the list. At least we’re first in something! I’m so proud.

    • Oh don’t worry, you guys are also first in “worst hockey team in the world.”
      And fashion…….still wearing jean shorts?

      • It’s only dangerous if you’re a black male, 14-44, dealing drugs on the Northside. Pretty much everyone else is safe.

        As to the Blues, there are much worse teams than the 3rd place in the Western Division Blues. Sure they will have a good season, sure they will never make it in the playoffs. But still, they aren’t all that bad.

  18. Chicago has the most murders as a function of population. There are US cities that have more murders per capita, but fewer overall. That doesn’t diminish Chiraq based pro-gun arguments, but there are more dangerous cities.

  19. So, how exactly does a liberal dismiss this data without being racist? Easy; the high crime rate in latin America must be America’s fault! After all… ummmm… whiteness… structures… denying “agency”… and stuff. No mention of how socialism rots away the soul of a people, and breeds especially violent criminals. No acknowledgement that this same phenomenon ruined Russia. It’s like they are admitting “once we’ve made you socialist and ruined your society you will no longer be relevant to our discussions.”

  20. Chicago and Cook County in general are great places for armed citizens to get killed by police, thanks to NRA contract lobbyist for IL Donald Todd Vandermyde. After the U.S. Federal Appeals Court overturned IL’s concealed weapons statute in Dec. 2012, Vandermyde put Duty to Inform w/ criminal penalties in Rep. Brandon Phelps “NRA backed” HB183 carry bill, because the IL Chief of Police wanted it. The retarded hicks in southern IL who compose 95% of NRA members think police are their friends.

    NRA needed a larger pool of victims to get killed by police criminals after they betrayed Otis McDonald, so in May 2015, Phelps and Vandermyde passed the SB836 “improvement” to the cc act, which has gun seizure language supplied by the IL State Police. I am not making this up:

    “If a licensee carrying a firearm or a non-resident carrying a firearm in a vehicle under subsection (e) of Section 40 of this Act is contacted by a law enforcement officer or emergency services personnel, the law enforcement officer or emergency services personnel may secure the firearm or direct that it be secured during the duration of the contact if the law enforcement officer or emergency services personnel determines that it is necessary for the safety of any person present, including the law enforcement officer or emergency services personnel. The licensee or nonresident shall submit to the order to secure the firearm. When the law enforcement officer or emergency services personnel have determined that the licensee or non-resident is not a threat to the safety of any person present, including the law enforcement officer or emergency services personnel, and if the licensee or non-resident is physically and mentally capable of possessing the firearm, the law enforcement officer or emergency services personnel shall return the firearm to the licensee or non-resident before releasing him or her from the scene and breaking contact. If the licensee or non-resident is transported for treatment to another location, the firearm shall be turned over to any peace officer. The peace officer shall provide a receipt which includes the make, model, caliber, and serial number of the firearm.

    Fantastic work from the NRA rat! How much do Chris Cox & Chuck Cunningham at NRA-ILA pay this scum so citizens can be disarmed by police impersonators like John Gacy? Liars, rats, traitors and scum, that’s “your” NRA!

    • John you really have an axe to grind. I must have seen the same crazed rant from you at least 30 or 40 times on oakpark.com alone back before they changed their comment policy. You really might want to consider some professional counseling or something before you hurt someone.

      • You seem very well informed Joe. Before he sold out you and Otis McDonald to the police unions, Vandermyde worked for William Dugan at the Intl. Union of Operating Engineers local 150 in Countryside, IL. Dugan was president of the 150 union and Vandermyde worked as lobbyist for them. Dugan was convicted by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in 2010. After that time Vandermyde no longer appears as a registered lobbyist for 150, only for NRA.

        Typically the government will look at all aspects of a union for criminal influence. Do you have any knowledge of the background and associations of Vandermyde in relation to his position with the 150 union? If so there may be parties who would offer a reward for such information. Have you asked Chris Cox & Chuck Cunningham to see Vandermyde’s FBI file? Any information you can provide would be appreciated.

  21. The USA have a high murder rate… if compared to other developed countries. Don’t compare yourselves to third-world hellholes, please.

    • You are right we should not be compared to the third world hell hole that is Chicago, or any of the socialist city states, but they intend to make the laws for all of us based on their lawlessness.

  22. For a couple of the worst Chicago neighborhoods, I broke down the homicide incidence per 100,000 per year using city-data.com for population and heyjackass.com for number of homicides in 2015 (minus the police involved).

    Englewood 107
    Austin 53
    Garfield park 77.7 (east and west combined, population off of 2010 census because it isn’t on city-data)

    Mind you this is with some of the best trauma care in the world.

    incidence of shot and wounded per 100,000

    Englewood 798
    Austin 229
    Garfield park 495

    note I’m not able to correct for repeat offenders, EG same person shot on more than one occasion in the year. Darn Hipaa laws.

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