Caribbean Net News: Killings in Puerto Rico running at record pace

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: With 120 killings in less than seven weeks, slayings in Puerto Rico are running at a pace that could make 2004 the commonwealth's deadliest in a decade, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

"We recognize the number of murders is way too many," said police Superintendent Augustin Cartagena, in office only three weeks. "We are sending a the message to the gang members and drug dealers that this is going to stop."

So far this year, an average of five people are slain in Puerto Rico every two days - a rate that, unless it's curbed, could push the number of slayings on the island past 900 this year. While drug violence is driving the deaths, also at stake is Puerto Rico's lucrative tourism industry.

"This problem is about gangs and drugs, and the faster we can get these people off the streets, it will have an impact on crime," Cartagena said. "There's no need for anyone visiting us to be worried about crime, because it's not been taking place in those areas."

Still, the pace of murders so far in 2004 is stunning.

Puerto Rico's murder rate typically far exceeds that of any U.S. state or city. Last year, when 779 people were killed, the commonwealth's murder rate was about 20.5 per 100,000 people; by comparison, Florida's and the nation's murder rate ran about 5 1/2 per 100,000 in 2002, the latest year for which statistics are available. Chicago was the murder capital on the mainland in 2003, logging 599 slayings, with a murder rate of about 20.6 per 100,000.

If Puerto Rico's murders continue on the pace set so far in 2004, the island's murder rate could hit nearly 25 per 100,000. To compare, Chicago has recorded 43 murders in 2004, down about 12 year-to-date; in New York City - with a population more than twice the size of Puerto Rico's - about 50 people have been killed so far this year.

The last time Puerto Rico saw such a spate of homicides was in 1994, when a record 995 people were killed.

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