Tag Archives: kidnappings

Mar
30
2012
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In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 3/30/12

In this week’s roundup: As polls show a tightening race between President Hugo Chávez and opposition challenger Henrique Capriles, Chávez threatens to seize banks and businesses who support the opposition, whom he accuses of launching a “campaign of violence.” Chávez travels to Cuba to receive radiation therapy; while in Havana, he reportedly received a blessing from Pope Benedict XVI. Experts point to Chávez as an “example” of a leader misusing oil and gas revenue. With Chávez out of the country receiving treatment, tensions emerge between many high-profile members of PSUV. Finally, the U.S. government warns travelers headed to Venezuela, noting that high crime has made the country an unsafe destination.

Venezuela’s Capriles May Close Gap on Chávez in Polls, Leon Says, Bloomberg

Venezuela’s opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski may close the 13 percentage-point gap in a Datanalisis poll against President Hugo Chávez in the coming months ahead of presidential elections in October, Luis Vicente Leon, president of the Caracas-based polling company said today in Caracas.

Chavez’s rival touts poll results showing him with similar support to president in Venezuela, The Washington Post via The Associated Press

The opposition candidate challenging President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela’s presidential ballot said Monday that he trusts the results of an opinion poll that indicates the two men are running head-to-head.

Chávez Warns Against ‘Plot’ To Sabotage Presidential Vote, Wall Street Journal

Venezuela President Hugo Chávez threatened Thursday to seize banks and businesses he accused of financing a “campaign of violence,” allegedly launched by the country’s political opposition ahead of the coming presidential election.

Chávez back in Venezuela after radiation therapy, Reuters

President Hugo Chávez returned home to Venezuela on Thursday after a first session of radiation treatment in Cuba that he hopes will cure his cancer and allow him to win a new six-year term in October.

Pope Blesses Cancer-Stricken Chavez in Cuba, Journalist Says, Bloomberg Businessweek

Pope Benedict XVI gave Hugo Chavez his blessing for a quick recovery in a private meeting in Cuba requested by the cancer-stricken Venezuelan leader, according to an opposition journalist.

Chavez starts radiation therapy, may meet Pope, Reuters

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez said on Sunday he had started radiation treatment in Cuba, where he could also meet Pope Benedict in the latest high profile development as the president tries to fight off cancer and win re-election.

Expert puts Venezuela as an example of misuse of oil revenue, El Universal

Venezuela and Argentina are not implementing sound oil policies, cautioned Zimbabwean oil and gas expert Duncan Clarke. Speaking to Efe in Nairobi, where he presented his new book “Africa’s future,” Clarke said that “Venezuela, and particularly (President Hugo) Chávez is an example of misuse of the cash generated by oil and gas.”

Left to their own devices, The Economist

FOR years the barons of Venezuela’s ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV) have been accusing each other of treachery, corruption, wheeler-dealing and skullduggery. Until recently, however, they tended to keep such charges private.

Washington issues travel advisory related to Venezuela, El Universal

The US government recommends its citizens, tourists or government personnel to take common-sense precautions when traveling to Venezuela to avoid being victims of murders, express kidnappings, extortion, robbery and drug trafficking activities.

 
Aug
23
2010
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Venezuela, more deadly than Iraq, wonders why

This article was originally posted by The New York Times.

Some here joke that they might be safer if they lived in Baghdad. The numbers bear them out.

In Iraq, a country with about the same population as Venezuela, there were 4,644 civilian deaths from violence in 2009, according to Iraq Body Count; in Venezuela that year, the number of murders climbed above 16,000.

Even Mexico’s infamous drug war has claimed fewer lives.

Venezuelans have absorbed such grim statistics for years. Those with means have hidden their homes behind walls and hired foreign security experts to advise them on how to avoid kidnappings and killings. And rich and poor alike have resigned themselves to living with a murder rate that the opposition says remains low on the list of the government’s priorities.

Then a front-page photograph in a leading independent newspaper — and the government’s reaction — shocked the nation, and rekindled public debate over violent crime.

The photo in the paper, El Nacional, is unquestionably gory. It shows a dozen homicide victims strewn about the city’s largest morgue, just a sample of an unusually anarchic two-day stretch in this already perilous place.

While many Venezuelans saw the picture as a sober reminder of their vulnerability and a chance to effect change, the government took a different stand.

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