Venezuelan Anti-Crime Program Records 55% Homicide Reduction

[Catherina]

Venezuelan Anti-Crime Program Records 55% Homicide Reduction

By Ewan Robertson

Mérida, 20th May 2013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – A new anti-crime program has resulted in a 55% reduction in homicides in a sector of Greater Caracas, a Venezuelan government official reported yesterday.

The figure was revealed by Interior Affairs Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres while offering the first results of the government’s “Safe Homeland” plan, which was implemented in four areas of Caracas last week.

The initiative involves members of the Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) patrolling communities which suffer the highest crime rates in conjunction with national and local police forces. 3,000 soldiers were deployed in last week’s pilot phase in the Venezuelan capital.

Torres suggested that the 55% homicide reduction, recorded in the Petare neighbourhood in Miranda state, gave “interesting signals” about the effectiveness of the “Safe Homeland” plan.

Crime has become a major issue in Venezuela over recent years, with UN statistics suggesting that the country has the third-highest homicide rate in the Americas, at 45.1 per 1000 inhabitants.

The government of President Nicolas Maduro has pledged to tackle crime and is pursuing a number of anti-crime initiatives including civilian disarmament strategies and the promotion of a community “movement for peace” in the country’s barrios, or poorer neighbourhoods.

Today the “Safe Homeland” plan is to be expanded to the states of Zulia, Lara and Carabobo, with 12,000 officers of the FANB participating.

President Maduro asked the population to “support” the measure, affirming on his twitter account yesterday that “Safe Homeland is the objective that we will achieve for the happiness of all”.

Published on May 20th 2013 at 12.41pm

This work is licensed under a Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives Creative Commons license

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/9441

[naaman fletcher]

1. I'm curious how they know this.

I thought VZLA stopped reporting murders a few years ago. So, how do they know how many there were before, and how many now?

[Bacchus4.0]

2. the numbers they used are not representative

independent organizations have a much higher rate. and the guy is talking about one barrio where they sent the military.

[naaman fletcher]

3. the numbers probably are down.. for now

But soon the military will take over the cops' rackets.

[Bacchus4.0]

15. many of the cops are crooks. Uribe used the military to combat crime

its actually amazing that this wasn't tried before. Maybe Maduro is simply smarter than Chavez? That's pretty scary.

[naaman fletcher]

16. Well sure,

But then the Military got in on the act.

I have mixed feelings about all of this.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Good news that promises to pay off as the program expands and deepens.

This is what was on Chavez' mind for a long time. It's great to see it's underway!

Thank you.

[naaman fletcher]

5. "This is what was on Chavez' mind for a long time."

Then why, in 12 years, didn't he do it?

Personally, I think it has a LOT more to do with the leaked phone call and the conflict between Maduro and Cabello

EDITED TO ADD: Or simply just Maduro recognizing a problem that Chavez refused to recognize.

[Judi Lynn]

6. He was doing a hell of a lot of heavy lifting, as we know.

Stop trying to knock down everything the DU members post in this forum.

Your cluster is not swaying anyone here. Democrats got to Democratic Underground first! Dibs.

[naaman fletcher]

7. It's a simple question

In 12 years, why couldn't chavez have deployed the military to fight crime if, as you say, he wanted it?

If it was because he was doing so much heavy lifting that he didn't have time, then the question is:

1. What was Chavez doing that Maduro has found unimportant and is not doing, so that he could have time to do this?

[Judi Lynn]

8. Noop, that won't work. Sad. n/t

[naaman fletcher]

9. I'll take your two non-answers

as an inability or unwillingness to answer.

[Socialistlemur]

12. Maybe the answer is simple: Chavez is dead?

I get the feeling what goes on over the recent period of time isn't Chavez' ideas. I looked it up and Chavez went to have a cancer operation in early December. He never spoke in public after that. I think it's safe to say he was zonked with morphine and other medicines because he had terminal cancer. So...I am venturing a guess what goes on over the last 6 months or so is being decided by others. I got the feeling this Maduro isn't a very sharp operator, so there must be some sort of executive committee figuring things out. And this fits, because if they can cut crime this easy it's plain to see before it was completely out of control and had very low priority. Which tells me maybe Chavez let it be that way to give his heir an easy fix. I bet Chavez may have caused the toilet paper shortage too, this way Maduro can buy paper, hand it out, and become a hero?

[naaman fletcher]

13. Right,

That is why the original statement I questioned makes no logical sense.

[Bacchus4.0]

14. Cuba is likely running the show. I doubt Chavez had a gran design to fight crime

He certainly didn't do anything previously with last year having over 20,000 murders. If this fix is so easy and effective (I am not necessarily disputing that) why on earth wasn't it implemented 10 years ago?????

[Socialistlemur]

17. Evidently Chavez is dead

The one thing we know 100 % is Chavez is dead. It's also evident reducing crime was easy if they did reduce it this fast. I do wonder, maybe the title of the original post was misleading. Say they used a lot of soldiers in a couple of tough areas. Then what happens to the rest of the country? And if using soldiers works why not use police? The military everywhere are known to violate human rights, those guys are not trained to do police work, they are trained to fight wars. I think the human rights aspect does need to be considered.

[Bacchus4.0]

10. Chavez ignored violence in the country

This is better than the status quo I suppose since crime just kept going up and up and up under Hugo.

[naaman fletcher]

11. Even on these boards,

Violence in VZLA was just a right wing talking point. Apparently Chavez had been planning on addressing said right wing talk point, but never got around to it.