What explains the lethal violence in Paraguay? A study with comparative intention

Abstract

In the logic of the rankings, Paraguay has been presented as a peaceful country where crime is not a serious problem as it happens in other Latin American countries; however, some departments of the country reach rates only comparable with the most violent territories in the region. The objective of this article is to identify the sufficiency conditions that explain why certain territories are notably more violent than others in Paraguay. To do this, nine departments of the country are compared, divided between the most and the least violent. The main findings of the study argue that those departments with a more rugged orography, and in which there are greater difficulties of effective coverage by the State, are those in which the highest rates of homicides are concentrated, and that, on the contrary, what happens in countries such as Mexico, the political coordination between the national government and the subnational governments has an inverse correlation to what is stated in the theory.