The Guardian reported that there were 9,402 homicides in 2005 in Venezuela, slightly down from 2004. As you can imagine, because of the dual citizenship of the children, this kidnap-murder also was big news in Canada. Canada had 622 homicides in 2004 - population is 33 million.
How well are such kidnapping crimes solved in Venezuela?
I was interested in this part of your report - the complaint that -
“Here the police are the primary accomplices of the criminals. We are tired of seeing them selling the turf to the drug dealers and selling contraband liquor. We want a more effective group like the National Guard."
In the case of the murder of Aquimedes Briceno in the poor neighbourhood of Brazul, surely the police could have picked up the two suspects before now. The protesters may be right - the National Guard, or a new Mision, may be the answer to getting a lower crime rate.
One solution - I recall that some years ago, a neighbourhood in St. Louis in a poor area "privatized" the street to cut down on access to it, and deterred criminals and drug dealers that way. You have written that the people in Barquisimeto live in gated mini-communities, and the crime is very low.
OW:
You mentioned:
"Further it is interesting that the protesters mentioned in the article see the main police force in Caracas as part of the problem, not part of the solution."
Back in 2002, during the coup attempt against President Chavez, the Metropolitan Police was under the control of the opposition mayor of Caracas, according to a Wikipedia article. The same source also contains the information that Carmona's installation as president generated a widespread uprising in support of Chávez that was suppressed by the Metropolitan Police.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Ven...attempt_of_2002
Do you know whether the same or another opposition mayor is still in charge in Caracas and whether the Metropolitan Police has remained being under control by the mayor?
If that were the case, then it would in part or in entirety explain why the fight against crime (in case it's been on the agenda) hasn't accomplished anything. It wouldn't surprise me if the opposition is taking advantage of the crime situation and obstruct possible crime fighting efforts to the point where it produces outrage and discontent among the population in order to make the Chavez administration look bad and blame him.
The high profile kidnapping and murder of three Venezuelan-Canadian children might have even been ordered by an opposition group paying street criminals to carry out this horrendous act. I will not put it past the opposition thugs to engage in something like this as they did in similar acts of sabotage, like the "national strike" called by the opposition in December 2002.
Solator:
No, the Metropolitan Police are now controlled by a pro-Chavez mayor. But you are correct that previously it were controlled by the opposition. Alfredo Pena ran to be mayor as a pro-Chavez candidate with a platform mainly focused on fighting crime. However, once in office he swtiched and joined the opposition. He was in office during the coup and yes the Metropolitan Police helped the opposition during the coup.
So it is correct that up until recently lots of the law enforcement agencies were under the control of the opposition. But in the state and local elections of the fall of 2004 Chavez supporters won control of pretty much everything except the state of Zulia. Its been a year now and while maybe there has been a tiny bit of progress in reducing crime it is clearly not enough.
The truth is also that the Metropolitan Police have had a very bad reputation for corruption for decades now - this way procedes the opposition-Chavez fight. There are probably lots of things that need to be done to change this. But firing th e the entire force shouldn't be off the table. Creating a new, neighborhood based force might help.
They also need a lot stronger anti-corruption efforts. Using a special undercover force to uncover and entrapt corrupt police is something they should have started a long time ago.
"You have written that the people in Barquisimeto live in gated mini-communities, and the crime is very low."
That works for new developments on the outside of cities but for the huge urban barrios where people literally are living on top of each other I don't know that they could do it.
Also, maybe the National Guard is more effective but it also has problems. It certainly has lots of petty corruption as anyone stopped at a traffic checkpoint is likely to know. All the security forces need a complete revamping.
Maybe once the new militia is fully up and running Chavez will be less concerned about coups and be more willing to take the kind of strong action needed with regard to these police forces.
BTW, they are trying to do some house cleaning in the police - over five hundred officers from the Metropolitan Police are up on charges:
http://www.aporrea.org/dameverbo...php?
docid=75746
The question is, is it enough.
Pretty saddening:
http://www.nationmaster.com/grap.../
cri_mur_percap
Yep it is indeed. Although they aren't really in fourth place. Note the graph includes less than half the countries in the world.
Still this is indicative of a big failure on the part of the government.
Chavez' government has been haphazard with respect to violent crime. Tinkering around the edges doesn't cut it.
A deeper structural approach toward lessening crime is multifold: renovating the prisons--make them them humane and safe; replacing the squalid hillside shanties into livable environs that are conducive toward human development; purge the state and private sector of corruption.
It would behoove Chavez to engage in massive public works towards a progressive project.
this is a process, progression of the slave revolt.
I think that crime is mainly driven by three factors (1) poverty, (2) drugs and (3) police incompetence.
(1) can be solved by economic growth, but this is a long-term solution. Surprisingly, the number of murders did not drop in 2005 despite robust growth; however, we need to wait more years to see if there is a trend or not. (2) drugs will not disapear and are linked to both poverty and factors outside the control of the government. If the US ended the meaningless war on drugs this would no doubt help.
I think Chavez should focus on (3) in the short term. Police corruption, brutality and incompetence are well-known. Paying them better would help; Chavez does have resouces for this. Cracking down on corrupt cops and brutality would be desirable, but this is easier said than done. Hey, they can't even do this right in LA (although the problems in Venezuela are on a different scale).
Btw. another factor in the high murder rate is the supply of guns. Steps to cut this would help. In Europe where guns are illegal, crimes tend to be committed with knifes and fewer people die.
Paying single mothers so that they have the resources to look after their children will help a lot.
There was a series of reports on poverty in the NY Times a while ago about a black woman who decided to lift herself out of poverty by getting education and becoming a registered nurse. The obstacles that she had to overcome were horrendous. Her older son turned to crime and drugs. She had resources later, and the youngest son did very well. After the woman started working, she was able to move to a better neighbourhood with better schools.
Better pay and training for police will help too.
I remember reading that Chavez has somebody in charge of reforming the prison system - if I remember correctly, it is somebody from the military who took the job only on the condition that he would have it for at least a year. He then interviewed prisoners to ask them what was wrong with the prison system, to get ideas.
Off topic re crime, but important -
a report about US and Dutch war games off the coast of Venezuela, and related matters - quite interesting.
For more than the quote below, see April 6,
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
'...the Bush administration is conducting a series of military exercises as a warning to Venezuela and other leftist governments in Latin America. In a replay of U.S. naval maneuvers held during the time the Bush administration tried to unseat Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in an April 2002 abortive coup, the U.S. Navy is deploying a task force led by the USS George Washington to waters off the Venezuelan coast in "Operation Partnership of the Americas."
ow,
By the way I thought the post was great. Three Canadian-Venezuelan from a rich family get killed along with there driver. It is big news and repudiated all over the world (I think it was even on yahoo.com among the five most significant recent stories). However, the vast majority of murders (in fact almost all) occur in barrios. Poor people are real victims of violence and more likely to be falsely accused and less likely to see justice. In Caracas for example affluent Chacao, Baruta and El Hatillo hardly have any murders, they all occur in Sucre and Libertador.
I read the Sucesos section always and it is chilling, especially in local papers like El Tiempo since they have more graphic details and pics. Every day a story or more like the one you posted. These stories are the murder statistics, not what happened today.....which does not make today's news any less horrible of course.
Off the topic again - but far, FAR too good to ignore - an IDEA for the Opposition-
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Mid...t/
HD06Ak02.html
"
Iranian democrats tell US where to stick its $85m
By Golnaz Esfandiari
While gauging public opinion can be a tall order in Iran, many of those who have spoken out so far say they are keen to maintain their independence, and this includes American money to continue their efforts to promote democracy in Iran. .....
And most important of all, BE PROFESSIONAL AND NOT POLITICAL!
The police forces have to have a single mission: Prevent crime and uphold the law...
But this is lost advice on a Revolution... And they will not be able to solve anything as long as they are bitten by this revo bug.
Owl, They are paying single mothers stipends these days. Hundreds of thousands of them I think. I had the number a little while back.
Tor,
"Cracking down on corrupt cops and brutality would be desirable, but this is easier said than done"
It actually isn't that hard. You just have to have police whose job it is to police the police using undercover methods - what in the US is called "entrapment". That is they should pose as civilians and in situations where bribes are offered or other crimes committed by the police offer them and see if the police officer bites. If so, they are arrested, fired, and perhaps jailed. When I see the GN openly asking people for bribes at checkpoints that tells me they have no fear of that happening to them. Let them fear for their jobs and their freedom and they may well change their behavior. In the US entrapments sometimes isn't allowed. But in Venezuela I think things are so out of hand it is called for.
BTW, this works in other situations to. Go to ONIDEX and apply for a passport. Offer a bribe to get it faster. If accepted, the employee taking the bribe would be arrested.
Bottom line, harsher and more "out of the box" methods are clearly called for.
ow,
Entrapments may work. Beefing up "internal affairs" in Venezuela may help too. The methods you suggest have potential.
But I think these things are hard in to implement successfully in Venezuela since you can always bride the agents doing the entrapment. Entrapment only works if the police is honest, disciplined and follows the law. The problem in Venezuela is that they are not. These methods will only work as well as the people who perform them.
Having local police forces helps for accountability. At least they are more directly accountable to the local people they are supposed to serve. If they do a bad job vote against the alcalde. If the GN does something vote against Chavez, who then influences extremely indirectly your local GN unit, which probably already has diferent staff. Coordination is a problem though.
It's all the CIA! LOL :D
http://www.vheadline.com/readnew...ws.asp?
id=53083
Does anybody know about the number of kidnappings in Venezuela and how they usually proceed, and any trends?
Is the victim usually returned alive after the money is paid?
Crime has bee a big failure for the government and evidently they started an ¨emergency¨session in trying to deal with it, the biggest plan is to scrap all of the police forces that number 2000 and create a single national police, evidently they really need to clean up the place and then tackle crime itself.
It is something that has been a sore point with me for a while.
"Entrapment only works if the police is honest, disciplined and follows the law. The problem in Venezuela is that they are not. These methods will only work as well as the people who perform them."
Tor, the internal affairs type police are different from the regular police - better paid, better educated, more elite. So you shouldn't have the same problems with them. But even more importantly the main idea here is no one can trust anyone else. A cop thinking of offering or accepting a bribe never knows if the person he is dealing with is bribable or is someone waiting to catch him in this and send him to jail. Its that doubt and fear that simply doesn't exist in Venezuela now because they don't have these types of programs that is enough to get most police in most situations to hesitate and not do something they shouldn't.
The police in the US aren't inherently less corrupt than those in Venezuela. They just know that there is a chance they will be caught and if caught the punishment is strong and assured. That will deter most people.
Owl,
I don't know the numbers on kidnapping. Suffice it to say it happens but it is not nearly as bad as Colombia or Mexico - yet.
I am quite pleasantly surprised at the way Chavez is in the process of solving various problems, so if he and the large number of citizens who support him decide to go after criminals, crime will go down.
I don't know much about the police in Metropolitan Toronto, so I did a search on the web. They get 19 weeks of training, and then work for 10 weeks under the supervision of a training officer. After three years, the police officer may get a salary of $66,852 - this is about as much as top experienced teachers.
Any idea how this compares with Caracas police?
I remember visiting New Orleans years ago and being a bit puzzled at the police doing fundraising on the street in the French Quarter to buy some equipment.
This is bad - police should be paid well, and they should have good equipment.
Lorenzo, do you ever DO anything but bitch about Chavez? This has NOTHING to do with the revolution, and you know it. But anything to slam and smear Chavez, I guess. Sick.
And I don't hear you complain about the murders of the poor. These kids were obviously well to do, though apparently not enough so to afford a small army of bodyguards. Suddenly they merit your outrage?
Pretty selective outrage, if you ask me. But so indicative of the vendepatria mindset.
Carry on; you do an excellent job of discrediting yourself.
BTW, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the boys' mother saying she doesn't want anyone using this case for political gain in the videos here?
http://lubrio.blogspot.com/2006/...-que-no-
se.html
And in addition, it sure looks in the video clips here that the oppos are doing just that, not to mention some wanton vandalism on completely innocent individuals:
http://lubrio.blogspot.com/2006/...testas-
por.html
Of course, my Spanish isn't 100% up to speed (and the audio of these clips isn't the best either), but if this isn't a wonderful case of opposition ookiness at work, I'll eat my hat.
Well, as other forista answered angrily in another forum:
Have you complained about the murder of ANYONE in Venezuela?
Have these same poor who are being murdered complained? THEY SHOULD, STRIDENTLY, AND BRING THE GOVERNMENT DOWN IF THEY HAVE NO SATISFACTION.
The last thing we heard from the government when the Taxi and Bus drivers complained and protested in Caracas was that it was all C.I.A. inspired. Oh yeah, indeed.
Talk about blatant hypocrisy. Now you try to ride someone because he protests and you do nothing.
In a revolution, and in a socialist revolution, everything takes a back seat to the political. Even the policial. We are seing some of the consecuences.
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