Tag Archives: Venezuelan Violence Observatory

Mar
28
2012
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U.S. State Department Warns Travelers of Surging Violence in Venezuela

venezuela U.S. State Department Warns Travelers of Surging Violence in Venezuela

Amidst increasing reports of violence in the South American country, the U.S. State Department recently issued an advisory with a series of warnings for U.S. citizens travelling to Venezuela.

According to the official document released by the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela, violent crimes, such as murders, express kidnappings, extortion, robbery and drug trafficking have increased dramatically, and are increasingly being perpetrated against foreign travelers.

But for citizens and visitors alike, the State Department report paints a concerning picture of the security situation in Venezuela:

“Violent crime in Venezuela is pervasive, both in the capital, Caracas, and in the interior. The country’s overall per capita murder rate is cited as one of the top five in the world. According to the non-governmental organization, Venezuelan Violence Observatory (VVO), 2011 was the most ‘violent in Venezuela’s history.’ According to its data, there were 19,336 homicides in 2011, up from 13,080 murders in 2010, an increase of almost 30%. The Venezuelan National Counter Kidnapping Commission was created in 2006, and since then, official statistics have shown alarming increases in reported kidnappings throughout the country. According to the governmental Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales, y Criminalísticas (CICPC) statistics, 1,150 individuals were kidnapped in Venezuela during 2011, with reported kidnapping incidents increasing 29% over 2010.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is in Cuba receiving radiation treatment after the removal of a second, unknown type of cancer, blasted the report, implying that Venezuela’s public security is far better than that of the United States. He also mentioned that he “inherited” these violent problems way back when he took office over 13 years ago.

Of course, Chavez’s government has declined to release murder statistics for many years, but in early 2011, the Venezuelan Justice Minister mentioned that the 2010 murder rate was 48 homicides per 100,000 residents, putting it near the top of those in Latin America.

For comparison purposes, in 2010 the U.S. murder rate was reported as 10 times less than that of Venezuela, at 4.8 per 100,000 people.

Tourists have been specifically warned about traveling through the Maiquetía airport, an international hub serving the capital of Caracas, which is described by the state department as “dangerous,” and “rampant” with corruption. At this well-known hot-spot for crime, several unsuspecting travelers have fallen victim to organized criminals posing as airport officials. The report gave sobering details about the epidemic of night kidnappings from Maiquetía, where travelers are taken and held for ransom in roadside huts. Indeed, the Embassy advises travelers to only arrive and depart during daylight hours.

Moreover, an increasing numbers of robberies have been reported in airport security checkpoints, and the Embassy advises travelers to keep all valuable belongings and important documentation in their carry-on luggage. In addition, U.S. travelers are encouraged not to sign any documents in Spanish while passing through customs, and to be wary of credit card fraud, which is prevalent in Venezuela.

Additional warnings have been issued for any trans-border travel between Venezuela and Colombia, due to increasing reports of “cross-border violence, kidnapping, drug trafficking, smuggling, and cattle-rustling [that] occur frequently in areas along the 1,000-mile long border between Venezuela and Colombia.”

These warnings come after a series of high profile incidents that include an assassination attempt against opposition presidential candidate, Henrique Capriles, and the shooting of the Chilean council’s daughter by Venezuelan police, an incident that resulted in her death.

With six months until the Venezuelan presidential elections and President Chávez frequently traveling to Cuba for medical care, one wonders how this surge of violence in the country will affect voter opinion in the upcoming elections.

 
Oct
29
2010
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VenEconomy: Venezuela in Permanent Mourning

This article was originally posted by The Latin American Tribune

President Hugo Chávez has decreed national mourning for the death of Néstor Kirchner, the former president of the Argentine Republic, secretary general of Unasur, and, as the decree says, “his brother and comrade, his route companion.” And the purpose of this national mourning is apparently to “meditate in sorrow on the work of this immense American.”

The communiqué sings the praises of Néstor Kirchner because it was as a result of the “clear leadership, unbreakable courage, and determination of this faithful heir of the great Juan Domingo Perón that Argentina rose from the ashes to which neoliberal capitalism wanted to reduce it to once again find the place that was always reserved for it in the field of free and independent nations.”

Regardless of whether this national mourning was appropriate or not, its declaration gives food for thought.

First of all, it would have been commendable had the Chávez administration extended similar courtesies upon the death of Luis Herrera Campins (2007) and Rafael Caldera (2009), two former Venezuelan presidents who died during Chávez’s terms in office and who have earned many more credits in the struggle for the democracy and freedom of the peoples of America than Kirchner.

Not only that, thousands of Venezuelan families would also have liked to hear during the President’s constant marathon broadcasts even the slightest word of condolence for the loss of their loved ones at the hands of criminals. According to the report “A decade of impunity in Venezuela (1998-2009)” by the Venezuelan Violence Observatory (OVV), more than 120,000 Venezuelan have fallen victims to crime and Chávez has been heard to say little, not to say nothing, by way of regret for the useless loss of those lives.

Another thought that comes to mind is that this contempt for everything that does not fit in with the revolutionary context has led Chávez to want to rewrite the history not only of Venezuela but of other nations as well.

Just as today he turns a dictator such as Perón into the “great Juan Domingo Perón,” so has he tried to erase Venezuela’s historical roots and great leaders of democracy from its collective memory. That is why he has renamed squares, parks, avenues, and freeways to remove the names of the country’s leaders, as he did with Rómulo Betancourt Park, which today carries the name of Francisco de Miranda.

In short, sadly “the State has ceased to serve constitutional freedoms and guarantees in order to serve a totalitarian ideology,” as former Ambassador Diego Arria put it this Wednesday at VenEconomy’s seminar “Venezuela 2010-2012?”

 
Aug
30
2010
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Venezuelans protest against unchecked violence

This article was originally posted by The Associated Press

Opponents of President Hugo Chavez marched through Caracas on Saturday to protest rampant violence that claims thousands of lives each year in Venezuela and has been worsening in the past decade.

Protesters beat on drums and held signs with images of skulls and crossbones and slogans such as “Enough” and “No more deaths.”

Journalists estimated the crowd that marched through scattered rains at roughly 1,500. A hearse rolled past with a sign saying, “You could be next.”

Nurse Gladys Perez said she is flabbergasted by the steady stream of people with gunshot wounds who are brought to the emergency room at the hospital where she works.

“We’ve had up to 60 wounded people in a weekend,” said Perez, 55, adding that in her three decades as a nurse she has never seen so much bloodshed.

“There’s an undeclared war here. I don’t know what to call it,” she said.

Venezuela has one of Latin America’s highest murder rates. The government has not released complete annual statistics recently, but last year authorities said there were more than 12,000 homicides nationwide in the first 11 months of 2009.

The Venezuelan Violence Observatory, an organization dedicated to crime research, has estimated more than 16,000 homicides last year in the country of 28 million people — up from less than 6,000 in 1999 when Chavez took office.

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