Body saw violent crimes increase in Venezuela

All manner of crimes increased in Venezuela in 2012 according to the private body Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia, which estimated in its latest report a total of 21,692 killings in 2012 or homicide rate of 73 per 100,000 inhabitants, Colombia's RCN La Radio reported on 27 December. The body's director told RCN radio that the figure represented an eight to 10-per-cent increase compared to 2011. The Observatorio concluded in its 2012 report that Venezuela was now one of the most violent of countries, in spite of "valuable" measures taken by the socialist government to curb crime. Its director Roberto Briceño-León said there had been a "sustained" increase in crimes since 1999 when he said Venezuela had a homicide rate of 19 per 100,000 inhabitants. He said "Venezuela is currently the most violent state in Latin America...a position of dubious honour it shares with Honduras, to some extent with El Salvador, but it has been a process of continuous growth when this has diminished in Colombia." A summary of its report cited the Venezuelan states with the highest homicide rates as the Capital District including Caracas, with 122/100,000 followed by the state of Miranda with 100/100,000 and Aragua south-west of Caracas with 92. The lowest homicide rates were seen in the southern and western states of Amazonas and Mérida, with 42 and 41/100,000. The report observed however that violence had spread to all parts of Venezuela; "killings increased in houses and on the streets. Assassinations have become the means of committing crimes against property, a mechanism for resolving personal disputes or between neighbours and a form of implementing private justice." The body noted a "loss of respect for police authority" manifest in the figure it cited of one policeman or police official killed every day in Venezuela in 2012. Authorities it stated counted 583 kidnappings - as these were reported - but there were "thousands that are not reported. Kidnapping stopped being a crime aimed at the rich and affects middle-class and working families." Kidnappers it added, were now more competent and flexible.