In Medellín, Colombia, homicide has been the first cause of morbidity and mortality for 20 years. Medellín has the highest homicide rates of all major cities in Latin America. This study describes the victims, motives, and circumstances in homicides in Medellín from 1990 to 2002. The period included 55,365 homicides, of which 1,394 were randomly studied. Of this sample, 93.6% (95%CI: 92.2%-94.8%) were males, 77.0% (95%CI: 75.0%-79.5%) less than 35 years of age, one-fourth had consumed alcohol, and nine out of ten were killed with firearms. The main motives were revenge and armed robbery. 37.0% (95%CI: 34.0%-41.0%) of the victims lived in the lowest socioeconomic stratum of the city. Characteristics of homicides in Medellín have remained unchanged since the 1980s, when the most violent period in the city's history began. The most heavily affected groups are young males who live and die in poor neighborhoods, and the murders are individual acts that leave no wounded behind.

The incidence, methods and risk factors for suicide may vary among the different cultures, which makes necessary to study the risk factors for suicide in specific settings in order to design adequate intervention strategies. This study aims to determine the risk factors for suicide in Medellín (Colombia). It is a case-control study conducted among 108 individuals who committed suicide and 108 deceased in accidents, matched for age and gender. Both cases and controls were examined by means of psychological autopsy. Conditional logistic regression analysis identified the following factors: Adverse life events in the last six months (OR=11.81, 95% CI: 4.29-32.52), family history of suicide (OR=10.82, 95% CI: 2.23-52.47), major depressive episode (OR=4.58, 95% CI: 1.53-13.67) and expression of a wish to die (OR=3.54, 95% CI: 1.25-10.06). These findings may suggest that risk factors for suicide are similar across cultures.

El homicidio en Medellín, Colombia, se convirtió en la primera causa de muerte desde 1986 y su participación del total de muertes pasó de 3,5% en 1976 a 42% en 1991 y 7% en 2006. Entre 1979 y 2008 hubo 81.166 homicidios (2.706 promedio/año). La tasa de homicidios por 100.000 habitantes fue 44 en 1979 y 47 en 2008, con un máximo de 388 en 1991. Se describen características de los homicidios en 30 años, entre 1979 y 2008, por quinquenios, mediante una muestra aleatoria de 3.414 necropsias médico-legales. Los muertos fueron hombres 92.8% (IC95%: 91,8; 93,6), jóvenes con promedios de edad entre 27 y 33 años, residentes en estratos socio-económicos bajos, con predominó de los móviles ajustes de cuentas, riñas y atracos. Se evidenciaron tres periodos diferentes de la epidemia de homicidios: el primero de incremento acelerado 15 años, el segundo de descenso sostenido hasta 1998 y el tercero ondulante y descenso abrupto en los 10 últimos años. Estos resultados de larga duración de la violencia en la ciudad abren posibilidades analíticas para encontrar políticas más consistentes de intervención.

This study aims to propose actions to improve the implementation of sustainable public procurement by identifying the problems perceived by public servants and social economy entities. Two types of questionnaires were sent to organizations in Spain and Europe and 217 complete answers were received (152 from the public sector and 65 from the social entities). In addition, 20 semi-structured personal interviews were conducted by phone with managers of social enterprises and four interviews, also by phone, were carried out with relevant people from the public sector. The results of the surveys and the interviews were structured using the analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT), which was considered consistent with the strategic nature of public procurement. The perceived opportunities for the public sector focus on more efficient use of public resources and improvement of reputation and social equality. For the social entities, more participation in procurement could lead to less dependency on public funds and more visibility. The obstacles for the public sector are related to lack of training and internal resistance to change, as well as, in the case of social entities, to their small size and the tensions with their social object that might derive from bigger competition. The proposed activities focus on two objectives, more training to increase knowledge from the public sector and the readiness of social entities. It is concluded that it is necessary to establish channels of communications between the two groups to avoid possible inefficiencies.

ResumenSe analizaron las muertes registradas como homicidio en México de 1979México de -1992. El estudio se basó en fuente secundaria, siendo las variables analizadas: año, edad, sexo y causa externa de traumatismos y envenenamientos según CIE IX Rev.(E960-E969). Se utilizó un modelo de regresión Poisson para las causas más frecuentes, obteniendo riesgos relativos según edad y sexo. El grupo de referencia fue el de 10-14 años y el sexo femenino. Se registraron 198,485 muertes por Homicidio, con un promedio anual de 14,177 y diario de 39. La principal causa fue ataque con arma de fuego y explosivos(56%). El riesgo relativo más alto fue para el grupo de 35-39 años, con RR 15,4 IC(95%) 14,9-16,0, en comparación al de referencia. El sexo masculino presentó un riesgo relativo 10,1 veces mayor que el femenino, ajustado por edad IC10.0-10.3. Los resultados llaman la atención sobre la necesidad de profundizar y analizar el problema de los homicidios bajo una perspectiva multidisciplinaria. Homicidio, estadistica. Mortalidad. AbstractA study of homicide in the population of Mexico, was undertaken for the purpose of discovering the mortality panorama by this cause during [1979][1980][1981][1982][1983][1984][1985][1986][1987][1988][1989][1990][1991][1992]