Global Terrorism Index 2025

Results

​Regional Profiles: Central America & the Caribbean
The Central America and Caribbean region have remained largely free from terrorism over the last decade. Eleven out of the twelve countries recorded a score of zero on the 2025 GTI. This signifies that these nations have not encountered a single terrorist attack in at least the past five years. Mexico is the only country in the region to have a GTI score above zero. Notably, in 2024, the country did not record a single terrorist attack. This marks only the third time since the inception of the index that Mexico has reported no attacks. 
 
Terrorism in Mexico has historically been driven by ideological or political motivations. It is important to note that criminal activity by cartels is not classified as terrorism in this report. While the level of terrorism in Mexico remains very low, other forms of violent conflict in the country are reported to be extremely high, particularly against journalists and media workers. Hundreds of these workers have been killed or disappeared within the last decade, many of which go unsolved. Additionally, Mexico continues to report one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Although incidents of terrorism in the country have declined, criminal activity driven by cartels remains prevalent in the crime landscape.
 
Every country in the region that experienced terrorism in 2014 recorded an improvement in the last decade. The largest improvement occurred in Nicaragua, followed by Guatemala and El Salvador, with these countries not recording an attack since 2014. The decline in terrorism in these countries has been accompanied by significant reductions in homicide rates. The most notable improvement has been observed in El Salvador, where the homicide rate decreased dramatically from 103 per 100,000 inhabitants to 1.9 in 2024, the lowest in the Western Hemisphere.
 
Global Terrorism Index 2025. Institute for Economics & Peace. Sydney, Australia.