Ever trendier

Central American countries like Guatemala are getting "ever trendier as war memories recede" according to this piece on CNN today:

"Ten or 20 years ago, mentions of countries like Nicaragua, El Salvador and
Guatemala conjured up visions of soldiers and civil war..."

Perhaps civil war is a lot easier to visualise than epidemic violence lacking a indisputable set of underlying causes.

As if by contrast, Guatemala's Human Rights Ombudsman Sergio Morales yesterday reported a 60.4% increase in lethal violence in the country over the past 5 years (3000 murders in 2001, 5000 in 2005. ) According to WHO studies, Guatemala currently enjoys a homicide rate of 40 for each 100,000 inhabitants, where the guideline limit is 10 for each 100,000 inhabitants.