10 Notorious Neighbourhoods

Travelling can take us to wonderful places—as well as into some danger zones, if we’re not careful. These are some places where few want to go, and where, if you find yourself there, you’re more likely to be a war correspondent or hardcore investigative journalist than a tourist.

Here are 10 notorious neighbourhoods that require travellers to be extra vigilant. If you’re headed to any of these destinations, check your government’s travel advisories beforehand, and when there, always be on guard.

Here’s what you need to know.

1. Cité Soleil, Port-Au-Prince, Haiti

It may be called the City of the Sun, but ever since the 2010 earthquake—and given the violence and corruption prior—this northern neighbourhood in Haiti’s capital has been full of darkness. It is perhaps the largest slum in the Western world, with poverty and unemployment so rampant that the residents rely on a mixture of mud and cooking oil for some semblance of nourishment. And hundreds of prisoners were released following the earthquake. Some aid workers have given up, and even police have recommended that those people struggling to make a home there “take matters into their own hands.”

2. Spanish Town, Jamaica

Thanks to notorious gang violence and poverty, Jamaica has the highest murder rate in the Caribbean, and only Honduras and El Salvador have higher murder rates in the world. And Spanish Town has the worst murder rate in Jamaica itself. In 2010, 138 people were killed among a small population of 160,000. Robbery and murder are the only way the majority of young men can make a living, and illegal guns are carried by children as young as 11 years old. Wars between rival gangs The Clanzmen and The One Order Gang continue to play out in beheadings posted online, despite an increased police presence.

3. Complexo do Alemao, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Perhaps Rio’s most violent favela, Complexo de Alemao is a giant shantytown that serves as a major crossroads in the global export of crack cocaine. For years, that road was protected, thanks to corrupt officials and gangland control, and the neighbourhood was often a symbol of a failed drug war, as police and gangs battled with civilians caught in the crossfire. Then, two years ago, in preparation for Rio’s hosting of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, a crackdown began and the police and military raided the neighbourhood. Still, many reports from the people who have been there indicate that Complexo do Alemao is beyond pacification. On July 23 of 2012, criminals shot and killed a police officer in the Nova Brasília part of the neighbourhood, which caused police to raise the number of offices there to 1,800. Yet, child gang members are still carrying automatic weapons and smoking crack in the open air.

4. Iztapalapa, Mexico City, Mexico

Ciudad Juárez may get all the media attention, but it’s in the Iztapalapa slum where some say the real corruption and violence lies, particularly against women. There were nearly 200 rapes and 5,000 cases of domestic abuse reported in 2010 alone. The murder rate has climbed to one every two days and water is always scarce. With corruption all over the place, drug trafficking is the order of the day and no one is really safe from everyday crimes.

5. Northeast Corner, Detroit, Michigan, USA

In the summer of 2011, 38 people were shot and eight died in the northeast corner of Detroit—a 6.5-square-mile slice of the city north of the airport and roughly bordered by the notorious Eight Mile, along with Hoover, Conner and Kelly. It accounts for six percent of the population of America’s most dangerous city, but accounts for 15 percent of its murders and 13 percent of its shootings. That was just one summer, but Detroit still stands as America’s deadliest city for the fourth-straight year. Flint, Michigan, the home of documentarian Michael Moore, isn’t much better with spreading urban blight, strongholds of gang violence and an underfunded police department that’s hopelessly outgunned.

6. Chamelecón, San Pedro Sula, Honduras

Chamelecón is the base of operations for MS-13, one of the most lethal street gangs in the world. It was here, in 2004, the gang protested Honduras’s reinstatement of the death penalty by killing 28 people and wounding 28 more. This neighbourhood is so dangerous there that police won’t even go in—and that’s in a city that is already notorious for violence. Beyond that, most families live in shacks and most men are entrenched members of the gang. There’s no water, no sewage and drugs are the only way out, as 80 percent of the cocaine trade from South to North America passes through here.

7. Barrio Sante Fe, Bogota, Columbia

Those who think Columbia’s involvement in the drug trade died with Escobar are sorely mistaken, and Barrio Sante Fe is certainly one sad by-product of the whole scene. It’s like a drug-infested candy store with all manner of heroin, cocaine and crack available. The U.S. State Department still ranks Columbia the number one place a U.S. citizen can get kidnapped in the world. There’s also this crazy drug called burundanga that could mess you about six ways from Sunday and leave you with absolutely no memory of the unspeakable acts that befell you or left you stranded in some gutter.

8. Nyanga, Cape Town, South Africa

There are 120 gangs operating out of this neighbourhood at any one time, a staggering 46.15 murder rate for every 100,000 people that live there, and, from April 2011 to March 2012, there were charges laid in 233 murders, 1,046 serious assaults, and nearly 2,000 drug-related offences. However, with the unemployment rate hovering near 70 percent and many residents affected by HIV and AIDS, it’s sadly understandable why seemingly every criminal statistic is on the increase.

9. Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia-Alania

This capital city of a southern Russian republic is strongly cautioned by the U.S. State Department as a place you don’t want to be—and if you happen to be one of the unfortunate ones who finds themselves here, they recommend that you “leave immediately.” As well, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada advises against all travel to North Ossetia. This place is in the middle of asserting its independence and is an epicentre of Russian terrorism. Not one, not two, but several mayors have been killed here, and a group of female suicide bombers called The Black Widows make their home base here. These women are responsible for more than 1,000 deaths over the past decade on planes, trains and subways, and in concerts and schools.

10. Mogadishu, Somalia

Mogadishu is a place of civil unrest, clan-based in-fighting, famine, terrorism, kidnapping and piracy. In 2008, half of the city’s population (500,000) left the war-torn capital. The whole city is lawless and at least one million people have died there since the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991. It’s so bad that the BBC describes the day-to-day this way: “The crump of mortars; the crackle of gunfire; eerily empty streets; prowling guerrillas and looters; sprawling refugee camps; hospitals overflowing with casualties, their bodies smashed open by bullets, shells and shrapnel…”

Have you been to any of these neighbourhoods? What was YOUR experience?

http://www.travelandescape.ca/2013/01/10-notorious-neighbourhoods/