It was a few days ago ranking of the most violent cities in the world in 2022, in which it was possible to verify that Guayaquil went from 50th place to 24th place with all the consequences that this means. It is interesting to learn about some details of the survey, an analysis that has been carried out for fifteen years by the Citizens’ Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice in Mexico, which basically studies the phenomenon of violence in cities with more than 300,000 inhabitants.

Guayaquil came from 50th to 24th place on the “ranking” of the most violent cities in the world

The entity, a civil institution, incorporates the criterion of the number of murders per 100,000 inhabitants to support its ranking widespread. There are other classifications prepared by institutions such as the Statista Research Department, which curiously does not include Guayaquil in the list.

26 violent deaths were registered in Guayaquil, Durán and Samborondón during weekends and holidays

The Mexican city of Colima was the most violent city in 2022, due to a rate of 181.94 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, adding that of the 10 most violent cities in the world, 9 of them are located on Mexican territory, and of the total of 50 cities that make up ranking, 17 of them are in Mexico; If the presence of Mexican cartels in Guayaquil is taken as a fact, it is clear to think that the contagion of violence will also become inevitable. As a startling fact, it should be pointed out that the maximum rate of murders per 100,000 inhabitants is held by Medellín, which in 1991 reached a rate of 381 murders at a time when Pablo Escobar was at war with the Cali cartel, with paramilitaries, as well as with the Colombian state. The dramatic evolution of violence in two specific cities is significant for international analysts: Guayaquil and Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, plunged into absolute lawlessness.

In the case of Guayaquil, its rate is 47.67 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, after scientists pointed out that Esmeraldas, which does not enter ranking because it doesn’t have 300,000 inhabitants, it had a murder rate of 77 last year. Anyway, posting this one ranking has once again highlighted the current state of our city, which has become the epicenter of unprecedented violence in its history, to the extent that it has sparked the interest of portals such as the BBC, which reported on how Guayaquil fell into the clutches of the drug trade. There is no doubt, at this point, that the criminal groups operating in our city, as is the case in Mexico, have made control of the ports and exit routes of drugs their main goal, with the collateral effect of uncontrolled violence.

A few days ago, the governor of Guayas expressed the need to leave Guayaquil order, an aspiration shared by almost all its inhabitants. What needs to be clear is that given the magnitude of the problem, something must be done, not just confiscate tons of cocaine, because if we continue down this path, there will be those who will start proposing less drug seizures in exchange for less violence. In other words, pax mafiosa. And it’s serious. (OR)