As nations around the world contend with a growing number of fatalities caused by the coronavirus, some are simultaneously experiencing an unanticipated — and welcome — decline in a different form of death: murder. The trend has been particularly notable in Latin America, the region with the highest homicide rates in the world outside of war. “It’s taking people off the streets,” Alejandro Hope, a security analyst in Mexico City, said of the pandemic and governments’ efforts to combat it. In several places, criminal gangs have even led efforts to impose curfews in neighbourhoods and regions where they hold sway. El Salvador began its coronavirus lockdown before almost any of its neighbours, closing its borders in mid-March, and shutting down schools and many businesses.

Source: bd News24 April 12, 2020 04:18 UTC