Yesterday, Monday, 11 May 2015, National Police Chief Major General Manuel Castro Castillo challenged figures released by an NGO in Brazil, stating that the Dominican Republic had the highest homicide rate in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2000 and 2012.
He said that the information had been released with the sole aim of causing damage to the Dominican Republic.
The NGO, Igarape Institute, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil said that the Dominican Republic had 34.4 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2012 but Castro Castillo said that that was impossible and that the figure was actually 23.4 for that year. He added that their analysis did not include 2013 or 2014 when there was a significant drop to 20.3 and 18.3 respectively due to the new citizen security measures introduced by President Danilo Medina and implemented by the police.