The United Nations noted that a quarter of the violent deaths in the world occur in a group of countries accounting for just 4% of the world population.  

Mexican media outlets challenge the federal government’s account over the deaths of 16 vigilantes, while academics create a system to measure and compare global levels of impunity. 

Of the nine countries in the region, from Mexico to Panama (including the Dominican Republic), El Salvador is the country with the highest rates of individuals arrested for trafficking in illegal arms, although Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, and Honduras also have significant rates.  

The end of the grand paramilitary confederation has implications for the ongoing peace process with the FARC, as the AUC’s demobilized veterans warn of the dangers of not having legal certainty. 

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Méndez, rejected the Mexican government’s take on the UN’s report and denounced “widespread” torture in Mexican police stations. 

According to a report, since 1990 Colombia has had 11,073 registered victims of landmines; and President Santos has set aside land for the Museum of Memory dedicated to the ongoing armed conflict.

Rio de Janeiro’s Military Police (PM) force has started the takeover of the Complexo da Maré favela communities from the national army forces currently stationed there.

The government of Enrique Peña Nieto would like to relegate the disappearance of the 43 “normalistas” from Ayotzinapa to the status of a “merely criminal” matter.  Yet their parents refuse to let it pass quietly out of sight.   

There are more than 500 mayors and former mayors threatened in Colombia. And the mayor of a small town in Peru’s southern Andes was gunned down over political differences, officials said, rejecting earlier claims that he was killed during a robbery. 

A new anti-extortion law prohibits telephone signals in areas near penitentiaries.