An ecological study highlighted violence and death by external causes in Salvador and in Bahia through data furnished by the Fundação Nacional de Saúde (Health National Foundation) at the Ministério da Saúde (Ministry of Health), based on mortality records and population estimates by IBGE. The risk of death by homicide in Brazil is three times greater than in the United States, and up to forty times higher than in Japan. Homicide was the primary cause of loss of potential years of life (13.4%) in Brazil (1997), followed by traffic deaths (10.6%). External causes were the second cause of death in Salvador and Bahia (1996). Violence has cultural-social and political-ideological roots and it can be prevented by intersectional, multidisciplinary actions.