SAN SALVADOR, (Reuters) – A surge of El Salvador gang violence this year has pushed up homicides in the country by about 70 percent from 2014, making it a top contender to overtake Honduras as the world’s most murderous nation.
Miguel Fortin, head of the National Forensics Institute, said in an interview that 2015 will end with about 6,650 Salvadorans murdered, against 3,912 last year.
With a population of some 6.4 million people, that equates to about 104 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, above the rate last registered in neighboring Honduras, which in 2012 held the distinction of being the most violent nation.
“This has been the most violent year in El Salvador in terms of murders,” Fortin said. “It’s a real pandemic.”