The World's Most Violent Cities You Should Avoid

In 2017, The Washington Post called Acapulco "Mexico's Murder Capital," and they weren't exaggerating. 

The problem has two heads. One, there are the drug cartels. Secondly, there are the neighborhood gangs. Together, they're responsible for extortions, kidnappings, car thefts, human smuggling, and all kinds of drug-related crime. Local businesses are forced to pay as much as half their earnings in protection money, and gunfire is common in the streets. They say it started to get really bad back in 2006, when a neighborhood shootout left corpses in the street and no doubts about the fact that Acapulco was a major stop on the drug routes into the US. 

It's no longer the seaside paradise it once was, and the activity of rival gangs have driven thousands of businesses out of town. When the president of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Services, and Tourism describes the area as being in a state of "mass psychosis", you know things are dire. And sure, things have gotten better, but not much. As of early 2019, Forbes described Acapulco as "still an active warzone", with days punctuated by threats occasionally delivered via letter, occasionally via a decapitated head, and occasionally via dead tourist.

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