By announcing on Monday (11) that the federal government will take control of Washington DC police and activate National Guard troops to combat crime in the US capital, US President Donald Trump cited Brasilia as an example of violent capital.
At a news conference, Trump displayed a table showing that the homicide rate in Washington was 41 per 100,000 inhabitants and in Brasilia, from 13 per 100,000 inhabitants.
“Look at that. Baghdad, ours [taxa] It’s double Baghdad. Panama City, Brasilia, San José, Costa Rica, Bogota, Colombia. Heavy drugs. Mexico City, I mentioned Lima, Peru, ”said the Republican President, according to Fox News.
“So, do you want to live in places like that? I don’t think so. I don’t think so. And I think people in this room [jornalistas]If you wrote correctly, they would understand. See the numbers we have. DC, 41 [homicídios] per 100 thousand [habitantes]. Number one we can find anywhere in the world. Other cities are very bad, but not as bad as this, ”criticized Trump.
However, the data from Washington and Brasilia quoted by the US president are outdated. According to the Atlas of Violence 2025, the data of 13 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in Brasilia is 2021, and last year the rate was 11.
Regarding the Washington rates, the White House itself, in a statement about the intervention in Public Security announced by Trump, placed the link of a research from the Rochester Institute of Public Security Initiatives (RIT).
This survey pointed out that by 2023 the homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants in the American capital was 39.4, but fell to 27.3 last year.
The World Health Organization (WHO) considers that violence is endemic in a region when the annual rate is ten homicides per 100,000 inhabitants or more.
