Rk Ch Country Level Ch Trend 1 +1 Venezuela 5 Same High/Higher 2 +1 Honduras 5 Same High/Higher 3 +1 Guatemala 5 Same High/Higher 4 -3 Haiti 5 Same Stable/Possible Ch. 5 Same Mexico 5 Same Stable/Possible Ch. 6 Same El Salvador 4 Same High/Higher 7 Same Brazil 4 Same Stable/Possible Ch. 8 +1 Colombia 4 Same Stable/Possible Ch. 9 -1 Bolivia 4 Same Stable/Possible Ch. 10 +4 Nicaragua 4 +1 Stable/Possible Ch. 11 +4 Argentina 3 Same High/Higher 12 -1 Paraguay 3 Same High/Higher 13 -1 Peru 3 Same Stable/Possible Ch. 14 -4 Dominican Rep. 3 Same Stable/Possible Ch. 15 -2 Ecuador 3 Same Stable/Possible Ch. 16 Same Panama 3 Same Stable/No Ch. 17 Same Uruguay 2 Same Stable/Possible Ch. 18 Same Chile 2 Same Stable/No Ch. 19 Same Costa Rica 2 Same Stable/Possible Ch. Av. LatAm 3.63 0.05
Source: FTI Consulting Ibero America © Copyright Latin Business Chronicle
NOTE: All rankings are from 1 to 5 by FTI Consulting Ibero America, 1 representing a safe country and 5 representing a very dangerous country.
High/Higher: High or trend to be higher.
Stable/Possible Ch: Stable with possible changes.
Stable/No Ch: Stable with no changes.
The ratings are based on official numbers from Public Security Secretariats, Local Police, Governments, Non-governmental Organizations (NGO) and Institutes of Crime Investigations.
METHODOLOGY AND SOURCES
This index takes into account how each country in the region is doing related to public insecurity, with a special focus on the business community. This allows longer-term trends to be seen in terms of improvement or worsening of the situation. FTI Consulting obtains government statistics at the federal, state or province and municipal levels in areas such as homicides, serious crime, cargo theft, home invasions, kidnapping, political and labor unrest, riots and violent demonstrations and drug trafficking, as well as the efficacy of government programs put into place to combat these problems. FTI weighs the governmental data based on its reliability, and it also utilizes NGO and multilateral institution studies and statistics and information in all these areas as a part of its ranking. FTI conducts scans of all major regional media outlets in order to obtain more specific facts around certain phenomena as well as academic research on the issue. Finally, FTI polls its business contacts in the region related to issues affecting their security.