Of the 50 most murderous cities in the world, 42 are in Latin America but none are in Ecuador

Brazil and Mexico head a new list of countries with the world’s most murderous cities. According to the list compiled by Mexico’s Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice (Ccspjp), 16 of those cities are in Brazil, 12 are in Mexico and five are in the United States.

Mexico leads the world in journalist murders. Most die at the hands of drug cartels.

Venezuela, El Salvador, Colombia and Honduras also ranked high for cities with the most murders.

No city in Ecuador made the list.

The Mexican city of Los Cabos ranks first with 365 murders in 2017, up dramatically from 65 in 2016, according to Ccspjp. Once a popular tourist destination in Baja California, the city of 330,000 blames drug trafficking for its skyrocketing murder rate.

Following Los Cabos on the list are Caracas, Venezuela with Acapulco, Mexico in third, Natal, Brazil in fourth, and Tijuana, Mexico in fifth.

The average murder rate of the 50 cities on the list was 59.17 per 100,000 population.

The Ccspjp reports that Ecuador has shown the most dramatic drop in murder over the past decade in Latin America, dropping from 13 murders per 100,000 residents to 5.5, third lowest in the western hemisphere.

According to Ccspjp, most murders in Latin America are associated with the illegal drug trade although it notes that extreme poverty is also a major factor.

Top 25 most murderous cities