World’s most violent cities: Medellín crime surge helps Latin America top list

Region has two-thirds of world's most dangerous cities, with Bogota, Rio, Mexico City and San Salvador also named in study

When police found the body of Marcela Graciano, a 31-year-old Colombian DJ, last Thursday, the brutality of the crime shocked even them. Her body, found in a house in a suburb of Medellin - Colombia's second city - revealed signs of torture and her hands had been tied behind her back.

The body was in an advanced state of decomposition," the local police chief, Col Rolfy Mauricio Jimenez, said. The Valle de Aburra municipality has had 11 murders this year, authorities said.