Drug trafficking and gangs are the main factors responsible for intentional murders in the most violent countries in the world: Honduras, Belize, El Salvador and Guatemala.
According to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime at the United Nations (UNODC), in 2012 Honduras recorded 90.4 killings per 100,000 inhabitants.
In Belize, the homicide rate is 44.7 per 100 thousand inhabitants, in El Salvador it is 41.2, and in Guatemala is 39.9.
In the small Central American economies, the effects of the intrusion of drug money would be devastating.
Although there are increasing rumors of money laundering from the sale of drugs in the Central American financial system, the phenomenon is far from having the magnitude that it has in Mexico and Colombia. However, the pressure that is being exerted in these countries against drug trafficking activities is forcing criminals to look to other countries in the region, searching for lesser repression. Central American countries are, for various reasons, including the weakness of their police forces, the most likely for this undesirable migration.