Vida perdida

Parts of Latin America continue to suffer from high crime rates and particularly high homicide rates. One of the safest countries, Chile, had a homicide rate of 6.7 per 100,000 people in 2022, while Mexico had one of the highest at 26.1. El Salvador used to have a very high homicide rate of around 35. However, in recent years El Salvador has become a lot safer under the controversial policies of its president, Nayib Bukele. Another of his controversial policies was the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender. The jury is still out on the prudence of that policy, given the International Monetary Fund is urging El Salvador to cease using Bitcoin as legal tender.

Source: United Nations, 2023.