Belize’s 2020 murder rate at 25 per 100,000 – lowest since 2013

The Belize Crime Observatory says that the data show that the murder rate for 2020 will be the lowest in seven years. Interestingly, the B.C.O. says that across the Central American countries recorded declines in homicides.

Adele Ramos, Technical Coordinator, Belize Crime Observatory

“Now, given where we are with the numbers, we are projecting that the murder rate of Belize will be at around twenty-five per a hundred thousand and this would be the lowest rate we’ve seen since 2013, but if we look at the regional picture, it is not just Belize that is seeing a decline. So, the InfoSegura countries, for example, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador – they have all so been seeing a decline and the biggest percentage of decline has been recorded in El Salvador, followed by Guatemala, then Belize, then Honduras and Costa Rica. For quite a long time, homicides have ranked among the top ten killers in Belize and if we look for example, where we were in 2010 versus where we were in 2019, you see assault/homicides; it is ranked more or less like fifth among the leading causes of death. Heart disease is still the leading killer in Belize but homicides rank way up there and I put COVID-19 there because I think we are well over two hundred COVID-19 related deaths right now. This information is compiled really early in the year and so we wouldn’t have figures for 2020 yet, but based on the way things are going, we could very well see COVID-19 listed there among the leading causes of deaths.”