Puerto Rico tackling fearful murder rate

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Francisco Laviera was shot to death in broad daylight when he tried to help a neighbor who was being beaten with a pipe. On an island with a per-capita murder rate six times higher than the rest of the United States, Laviera’s was Puerto Rico’s 823rd killing this year. Unlike the highly publicized murders of boxing champion Hector “Macho” Camacho or that of the publicist who was robbed and burned alive this month, Laviera’s death did not spark social movements on Facebook or Twitter. “No one will ever be able to stop these killings,” lamented Juan Quiles, a police officer who guarded Laviera’s bullet-strewn murder scene one evening last month.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/11/3137968/puerto-rico-tackling-fearful-murder.html#storylink=omni_popular