Why They Flee: Life in the Murder Capital of the World, San Pedro Sula, Honduras Dan Lieberman - Fusion
go to original August 24, 2014

San Pedro Sula has - for the last two years - had the highest murder rate of any city in the world, according to the Mexican think tank Citizen Council for Public Security, Justice, and Peace. The homicide rate in 2013 was 169 murders per 100,000 residents.

By comparison, the most dangerous city in the United States on the list, New Orleans, had a rate of 56.13 murders per 100,000 residents for the same year.

Gang warfare has left its mark on places like Chamelecon, a working class neighborhood in the southern part of the city where two gangs with roots in Los Angeles - the MS-13 and 18th Street gang - battle for control.

We accompanied a military patrol through the neighborhood on a Saturday afternoon. On one corner, a barber shop stood vacant and riddled with bullets. The gangs impose taxes on businesses and families here. If you don't pay, you run or get killed.

Read the full story at Fusion

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