According to the study, about 75 children and adolescents between zero and 19 years old die each day due to interpersonal violence, with the highest figures being recorded in Honduras, Venezuela, Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, Republic Dominican Republic, Belize, Panama, Haiti and Jamaica.

While there is a progress in many indicators, violence remains the main threat to children and adolescents in the region, said the regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean of Save the Children, Victoria Ward, who was concerned about these indicators.

During its second year of publication, the report The Multiple Faces of Exclusion describes a discouraging panorama in the region, reflecting indicators associated with health problems, malnutrition, exclusion from education, child labor, marriage and early pregnancy.

Only in Guatemala, half of children under the age of five are stunted growth due to the high malnutrition rate, Lyda Guarin, regional specialist for protection against violence, said.

The text says that among those threats also stands out the prevalence of pregnancies among adolescents, a phenomenon ‘that seems to be decreasing in all regions, except in Latin America and the Caribbean,’ Ward said.

Data from Save the Children shows that currently in the region, about 11 percent of adolescents between 15 and 19 years old are married or in union, being Dominican Republic (27.5), Ecuador, Belize, Honduras and Nicaragua the nations with highest risk of violent crimes.

With regard to pregnancy, the report revealed that more than seven percent of girls between 15 and 19 years old give birth each year, which indicates that the regional average exceeds 1.5 times the world average.

Faced with this reality, the study highlighted the need for governments to take measures so that no child dies from preventable or treatable causes, or suffer extreme violence or is deprived of a future due to malnutrition, marriage and early pregnancy or forced labor.

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