NewsTracker Answers for week of Apr 14, 2014

Q: Honduras has the world's highest murder rate with 90.4 homicides per 100,000 people in 2012 , according to a United Nations report published last week. Where is Honduras?

Circle the area on this map


Q: The UN reported that the Americas have overtaken Africa as the region with highest peacetime murder rate, and Central America fared particularly badly. Belize had a murder rate of 44.7 per 100,000 people, while it was 41.2 in El Salvador which is . . .

A. Northwest of Honduras

B. Northeast of Honduras

C. Southeast of Honduras

D. Southwest of Honduras


D. Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras on the Caribbean Sea.


Q: Gang warfare plagues Honduras. It has been invaded by cartels from which nation that has suffered thousands of drug-related murders in recent years?

A. Colombia

B. Mexico

C. Costa Rica

D. United States


B. In Mexico, where about 85,000 people have died in drug-related killings since a 2007 military-led assault against the warring cartels, the murder rate was 21.5 per 100,000 people.


Q: Honduras is one of the poorest nations in the Americas, with 60 percent of its people living in poverty. Which is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere?

A. Haiti

B. Bermuda

C. Chile

D. Nicaragua


A. Haiti has a gross domestic product (GDP) of $1,300 per person compared with $4,800 in Honduras. Bermuda has the North America's highest per capita GDP at $86,000, while Chile is the wealthiest nation in South America. Nicaragua is just a bit poorer than its neighbor Honduras.


Q: In addition to poverty, the distribution of income is very unequal in Honduras. Which nation has the most income equality in the Americas?

A. Argentina

B. Venezuela

C. Canada

D. United States


C. Canada has great income equality and a relatively low murder rate of 1.6 victims per 100,000 people. But, Venezuela has more income equality than the U.S. and still has the world's second highest murder rate at 53.7. The U.S. rate is 4.8.