Facts & Figures: Human Rights in the Americas in 2019

  • At least 210 people died violently in the context of protests across the Americas: 83 in Haiti, 47 in Venezuela, 35 in Bolivia, 31 in Chile, 8 in Ecuador and 6 in Honduras. (Amnesty International)
  • With 208 killings, Latin America and the Caribbean was the world’s deadliest region for human rights defenders and accounted for 68% of the global total of 304 killings. Colombia was the world’s most lethal country for human rights defenders, with 106 killings. (Front Line Defenders)
  • According to Insight Crime, Venezuela was the most violent country in Latin America and the Caribbean (with a homicide rate of 60.3 per 100,000 inhabitants), followed by Jamaica (47.4) and Honduras (41.2). Chile (2.6) was the least violent, followed by Argentina (5).
  • Mexico recorded the most violent year in its modern history in terms of the number of homicides registered, with 35,558 in 2019. (SESNSP)
  • Mexico was the region’s deadliest country for journalists, with at least 10 killings in 2019. (Articulo 19)
  • The USA has both the highest absolute and per capita rates of gun ownership in the world. (Amnesty International)
  • Canada was the least corrupt country in the Americas (ranked 12th worldwide in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index), followed by Uruguay (21st) and the United States (23rd). Venezuela (173rd) was the most corrupt in the region, followed by Haiti (168th).
  • 30.8% of the population in Latin America lived below the poverty line in 2019, with 11.5% living in extreme poverty. (ECLAC)
  • Economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2019 was almost inexistent at 0.1%. (ECLAC)
  • Almost 4.8 million Venezuelans have left the country, mostly since 2015, in what is now the world’s second largest refugee crisis after Syria. (UNHCR)
  • During 2019, US authorities forced over 59,000 asylum seekers to return to and stay in Mexico during the adjudication of their asylum claims, which can take months or years to complete. (TRAC Immigration)
  • Mexican migration authorities detained 186,750 irregular migrants and deported 123,239. Of those deported, 98% were from Central America and almost half were from Honduras. (SEGOB)
  • Mexican authorities held at least 51,999 children in immigration centres, in violation of Mexican law. (SEGOB)
  • The Brazilian Amazon suffered 89,178 forest fires in 2019, a 30% increase from 2018. (National Institute for Space Research – INPE)
  • Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon totalled 9,762 km² from August 2018 to July 2019, up 29.54% from the deforested area in 2018, which was 7,536 km². (INPE)
  • By the end of 2019, 22 countries had signed the Escazú Agreement, a ground-breaking regional treaty on environmental rights. Ecuador became the eighth country to ratify the agreement in February, meaning just three more need to do so for it to enter into force.