Brazil tops Latin American ranking of stray bullet deaths, UN says

Brazil is the country with the largest number of deaths from stray bullets among Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2014 and 2015, according to a report by the United Nations Regional Center for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC). The report is based on cases reported by the media in 27 countries.

Out of the 741 incidents involving stray bullets in the region (which have resulted in 371 deaths and 455 injuries) covered by the report, 197 happened in Brazil, resulting in 98 dead and 115 injured. The second-ranked country is Mexico with 116 cases (55 dead and 77 injured), followed by Colombia with 101 cases (40 dead and 74 injured).

According to UNLIREC, this situation is a result of the proliferation of small arms and ammunition, combined with a number of institutional, social, and economic variables which have given rise to unacceptable levels of armed violence in the region.

According to Bruno Langeani, sector coordinator for Instituto Sou da Paz NGO, the fact that Brazil tops the ranking is not surprising—60,000 homicides are reported each year in the country. “[With] so much armed violence around, stray bullets are certain to become an issue.”

“In many cases, especially in Brazil, the authorities' stance is as if nothing could be done to avoid stray bullets,” Langeani said. However, he points out, learning more about the phenomenon could make it possible to find solutions. Moreover, he says, this data should be reviewed with a perspective of the context in which stray bullets occur.

“[Take for example] police operations in Rio slums. The very choice of which weapon to buy for police influences how often you get stray bullets,” Langeani said. He explained that higher caliber weapons have greater potential to pierce through barriers and hit a random civilian. In his opinion, carbines would be more appropriate for police operations because they reach shorter shooting ranges and provide greater precision.

In Brazil, in 30% of the cases, the cause of the stray bullet ends up unidentified. The identified cases are mostly due to organized crime (24%), gang violence and robbery (16% each) and state intervention (7%).

For Langeani, the data from the UNLIREC report may have a bias because it was collected from news reports. “[But] We wouldn't be able to document them otherwise. Even in Brazil, there is no 'stray bullet' category in police reports. So the study was based on the news for want of a more appropriate source,” he said.

One broader solution he proposes is removing illegal weapons from circulation, something that should be done in all countries and could have a direct impact on the problem.

Translated by Mayra Borges