VENEZUELA: With one of the world's highest crime rates, security has become a hot issue in Venezuela's presidential campaign

Before police stopped issuing crime statistics in 2003, on average one person was murdered in Venezuela every hour. The grim statistics have not improved in recent years and today Venezuela holds one of the world's top spots for overwhelming crime. It's a sad, but familiar story throughout Latin America, where poverty-stricken countries, many emerging from brutal civil wars, are grappling with rampant crime and weak police forces. Venezuelan security experts estimate that in this country of 26-million, at least 60-thousand have died because of crime in the past six years. Although the capital city Caracas is the hub for many of the problems, is not confined to just the city, but occurs nationwide and affects people from all social strata. Nevertheless, the poor living in the shantytowns bear the brunt of the effects of crime. This is in part due to the poverty which makes crime a more attractive option, but also due to lack of adequate policing, according to residents. In some areas, the police are too frightened to enter and in other cases, they are easily corrupted, partly because criminal activity is more profitable than their day jobs and partly because the criminals are the family and friends of the police. This level of lawlessness brings misery to this area. Yaneth Chavez, is just one of many family members that gets left behind to pick up the pieces after a murder. "(Talking of the murder) How, how, how, how? Justify the death. You do not have children. Sons of bitches," she screamed. The Venezuelan government admits that crime levels have increased over the last 30 years, but are keen to point out that the murder rate in particular is now growing more slowly. The Interior Minister, Jesse Chacon, made a statement to the media in November this year showing a graph for murder rates in Venezuela, which showed that since 2001 to date - that is, during the Chavez administration - the increase in the rate of murders per 100,000 inhabitants had grown much more slowly than in the previous two decades. The Minister also outlined plans for improving the country's police force. "Putting 120,000 extra police on the streets of Caracas, like people (the opposition) suggest is a proposal made by people who do not know what they are talking about. The analysis that we have done demonstrates that according to the figures of the human rights organizations, Venezuela has more police per 100,000 inhabitants than countries such as France and Spain. Our problem is not the number of police, but the quality of the police we have. Today's proposal is for the police (that we have). After analyzing the situation, we are going to launch a new academy, a new model for the police education system that doesn't only educate the police at the point of entry (when they join the force) but that educates police so that they grow permanently inside the organization (they have continuous professional development). (The education) will not only be dedicated to train, but also to research so that the police training develops to response to what is happening in society," he told the media. Despite pledging to address the security problem and showing some statistics that present the government's record on crime in a more positive light compared with past regimes, other statistics, which add context to those figures tell a sadder story. Venezuela has one of the highest murder rates in the world and the world's highest death rate from guns, with 34 deaths in every 100,000 caused by firearms, according to the United Nations. Officials estimate there are some 6 million guns circulating among the 26 million Venezuelan citizens. However, the Chavez government has tightened gun laws. Once it was easier to take out a gun licence than a driving licence, but now only police officers can buy guns legally. In spite of this, there are a number of gun shops nationwide and the evident levels of gun ownership would suggest that the law is not being implemented effectively. With the December 3 presidential election rapidly approaching, crime has become a hot issue in the presidential campaign. Critics say he has become more authoritarian and not tackled basic issues including crime and corruption. Although Chavez is likely to win the election, the opposition is honing in on crime as a potential Achilles heel. Marcos Tarre Briceno who is a crime analyst and heads up an anti-gun NGO, "Secure Venezuela", told Reuters that the systems in place to deal with crime are rotten at the core. "(We now see) a deterioration of the basic systems that support security such as the police system, the judicial system and the penal system. We have a tremendous police crisis, some levels of impunity that have not been known before. All of this has meant that crime has increased in an alarming manner and nowadays we are in this sorry state in terms of insecurity," he explained. Residents of Caracas confirm this sentiment, and many people scared to be out on the streets after dark. "Not even I feel safe and insecurity has already reached such an extreme that at 6 in the evening you have to be at home and many things can happen, you could be affected at home, too," said Caracas resident Daniela Fuentes. Indeed those living in the capital were so concerned about rising levels of security that they staged a huge protest earlier this year in which they shut off one of the main avenues in Caracas and drew chalk lines on the street and laid down to emulate the increasing number of dead bodies found in Venezuela. This protest was not a political stunt. Both pro and anti-Chavez contingents were present. Arturo Rodriguez, a Chavez supporter pleaded for his president to do something to ameliorate the situation. "Our president. You have promised us security. What's going on Mr. President? Where are you? Help us! This is your country, these are your people. We are Bolivarian like you have said to us," he said. Although the Chavez government is currently working on police reform, the main opposition candidate, Manuel Rosales thinks this is too little, too late and seeks to exploit the government's weak record on crime to date. Rosales has promised a crime crackdown if he wins. He has suggested policies such as a gun amnesty in which he will offer a reward, giving each person who turns in a gun a $2,300 government bond. He is also looking to modernize the police force by offering university type training to officers and swelling their numbers by 150,000. Rosales has also said he would sign a security agreement with Colombia to reduce drug-related crime on Venezuela's lawless western borders.

ITN Source | November 25, 2006

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