Are you sure you are not just looking at things from the perspective of being on holidays? The violent crime rate on a lot of Caribbean islands is horrendous.
Lots of that is civil war, it's a "hidden civil war" because it's basically turf fights between middle management of the cocaine industry.
I don't deny problems, but I'm up north, near the volcano, here life is extremely different. Now in large cities (closer to western lifestyle :p) things are sour..