VENEZUELA:
Fifty-Two Violent Deaths
a Day, and No Respite in
Sight
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS (IPS) - On the
day a report was
released ranking
Venezuela as one of the
most violent countries
in the world, a local
anti-drugs prosecutor
was murdered, a mob
lynched a suspected
criminal in the capital,
and gunmen fired 20
shots, killing another
suspect.
In the 72 hours leading
up to the publication of
the Global Peace Index
(GPI), 70 murders were
reported in the
metropolitan area of
Caracas, which has five
million residents.
One of the victims was
Oskel Rubio, a mechanic
who maintained the
motorcycles used by
President Hugo Chávez’s
bodyguards. He was
killed by thieves who
stole his car in the
densely populated
western area of the
capital.
His mother, Elizabeth
Rubio, complained that
police at the entrance
of the hospital where
her seriously wounded
son was taken delayed
his admission to the
medical centre and stole
some of his belongings.
In the 24 hours prior to
the publication of the
GPI report on Tuesday,
five minors were shot to
death, including a
six-year-old girl who
was shot in the chest as
she played at home in
western Caracas at
breakfast time, and an
11-year-old boy riding
in a bus who was killed
by cross-fire between
rival gangs in an
eastern part of the
city.
Colombia and Venezuela
are the only countries
in the Americas coloured
red on the map of the
GPI, a peace and
violence ranking based
on 24 variables in 140
countries, compiled by
the Intelligence Unit of
the British news
magazine The Economist,
in conjunction with the
Institute for Economics
and Peace.
At the most violent end
of the spectrum, with
more than 3,000 points,
is Iraq, accompanied by
Somalia, Sudan,
Afghanistan and Israel,
while the most peaceful
countries, coloured blue
on the map, are Iceland,
Denmark, Norway, New
Zealand and Japan, with
less than 1,400 points.
Within Latin America,
the least violent
countries are Chile,
Uruguay, Costa Rica and
Panama.
In the report, Venezuela
is in 123rd place with
2,505 points, close to
Colombia, in 130th place
with a score of 2,707.
Between them in the
ranking are Zimbabwe,
Sri Lanka, Burma
(Myanmar), Pakistan,
Nigeria and the
Democratic Republic of
the Congo.
"The difference is that
Colombia has experienced
an acute armed conflict
for 50 years that has
given rise to criminal
paramilitary groups,
drug traffickers and
hired killers, which is
not the case in
Venezuela," Luis Cedeño,
of the non-governmental
Caracas-based Institute
for Research on
Coexistence and Citizen
Security (INCOSEC), told
IPS.
Between August 2006 and
September 2007, 395
teenagers and children
in Venezuela met violent
deaths, including 21 who
were killed by the
security forces, 20 who
were caught in the
crossfire and nine who
were killed in
accidental shootings,
Oscar Misle, of the
children’s rights
organisation CECODAP,
told IPS.
"Violence among
teenagers is rising,
reaching into schools
and making them unsafe
places. Among its causes
are issues like drugs,
family instability, lack
of coordinated policies
to deal with the problem
and the proliferation of
firearms," said Misle.
Amnesty International
reported in April that
in Venezuela, a country
of 27 million people,
there are some six
million guns, of which
only 1.5 million are
legally registered.
"There are too many, and
the authorities don’t
have precise estimates
of how many there
actually are," retired
former chief of the
judicial police Pablo
Guzmán told IPS.
Interior and Justice
Minister Ramón Rodríguez
said that in the first
quarter of 2008, the
number of homicides in
Venezuela decreased by
7.7 percent compared to
the same period in 2007,
when 621 murders were
committed.
Two weeks ago a motorist
had a fatal crash in
front of the ministry as
he fled from assailants
who wanted to steal his
car.
According to judicial
police records, there
were 13,156 murders in
2007, another 1,579
deaths for "resisting
authority," and a
further 4,264 fatalities
"under investigation,"
giving a total of 18,999
violent deaths.
"That is equivalent to
52 murders a day, and a
murder rate of 48 per
100,000 population if
legally confirmed
homicides are
considered, but if all
the violent deaths are
taken into account, the
rate is 69 per 100,000
population. More than 95
percent of these deaths
are from gunshot
wounds," Cedeño said.
Nationwide, 12,257
homicides were recorded
in 2006 (a murder rate
of 45 per 100,000
population), 8,022 in
2000 (33 per 100,000),
4,481 in 1995 (21 per
100,000) and 2,474 in
1990 (13 per 100,000).
By comparison, the
United States has a
murder rate of 5.7 per
100,000 population,
Canada 1.85 per 100,000
and Germany less than
one per 100,000.
Caracas, with 130
homicides per 100,000
population, or 166 if
all violent deaths are
taken into account, has
overtaken Recife, in
northeastern Brazil,
which has a murder rate
of 158 per 100,000, as
Latin America’s most
violent city, said
Cedeño.
Violence is a big
problem in all of
Venezuela’s big cities,
and personal insecurity
is the most pressing
concern mentioned in
opinion polls.
Criminologist and former
judge Mónica Fernández
told IPS that
"cold-blooded and
excessively violent
murders, not with one or
two bullets but 20 or
30, not only indicate
serious pathology or
drug use, but also a
defiant attitude and
rampant impunity."
Police investigations
are completed on less
than half of reported
homicides, and only a
small fraction of these
lead to conviction and
sentencing.
Violence in Venezuela is
a long-standing problem,
which the government of
President Hugo Chávez,
in office since 1999,
has failed to adequately
address, despite reforms
of the prison system and
a restructuring of the
police forces.
Social psychologist
Roberto Briceño-León
said that "tolerance of
impunity and the violent
political climate
encourage
permissiveness.
Potential criminals do
not feel that if they
commit a crime, there
will be consequences."
"Violence is a sort of
amniotic fluid in which
Venezuela is floating,"
Magally Huggins, a
criminologist and
professor of clinical
psychiatry and
psychology at the
Central University in
Caracas, told IPS. |
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