Crime Rate Skyrockets in Venezuela

www.sltrib.com With a strike crippling the economy and, some say, fueling a surge of violence in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez has a lot to pray about. (Victor R. Caivano/The Associated Press)

BY TOD ROBBERSON DALLAS MORNING NEWS

    CARACAS, Venezuela -- Until recently, Jose Gabriel tended to dismiss all the talk of rising crime in Venezuela as the gossip of political alarmists and rumor mongers.     "People talked about it, but nothing ever happened to me," the 28-year-old office clerk said. But as he and his girlfriend waited in line at a gas station on Feb. 12, rumor suddenly became reality.     Three men jumped out of a car, aiming automatic weapons. One fired a shot at Gabriel's feet while the others jumped inside his car, shoving him into the back seat.     Before motorists in other cars had time to react, another of Venezuela's infamous "express kidnappings" was under way. When it was all over less than an hour later, Gabriel and his girlfriend found themselves standing dazed on a roadside with no money, no jewelry, no cellular phones and no car.     When he went to the nearest police station, he said, he had to wait behind four other victims of the same type of crime.     After two months of business and labor strikes and what many regard as a wholesale breakdown of government authority, police statistics indicate an explosion in street crime across Venezuela, with Caracas experiencing the brunt of the problem.     National income has plummeted, spurred by a petroleum workers' strike that had paralyzed exports in what was the third- or fourth-largest supplier of oil to the United States.     Car thefts at gunpoint, armed robberies, assaults and homicides have skyrocketed to unprecedented levels, making Venezuela the second-most-dangerous country in the hemisphere behind war-racked Colombia, according to the Pan-American Health Organi- zation.     The crime epidemic is so pronounced that business groups are warning U.S. executives not to travel to the capital without armed guards and at least one radio-equipped escort car to provide assistance in case gunmen seize the main car. The Caracas international airport has become a major venue for kidnappings.     "Express kidnappings, in which victims are seized in an attempt to get quick cash in exchange for their release, are increasing in Venezuela's capital," the U.S. State Department said in a travel warning updated this month. "Kidnapping of U.S. citizens and other foreign nationals, from homes, hotels, unauthorized taxis and the airport terminal is occurring on a regular basis."     Even piracy along the Venezuelan coastline has become a major problem, the State Department warned.     Gunmen kidnapped a senior American executive and his wife recently and held the two at gunpoint after they had settled into their chauffeur-driven car at the Caracas airport, according to a source close to the executive.    Crime analysts differ on whether a 2-month-old national strike by opponents of President Hugo Chavez has contributed to the rise in crime or had no effect on it.     Official statistics on crime during the strike -- which led to a nearly total shutdown of shops, businesses, restaurants and gasoline stations before it ended last month -- have been hard to come by because of a political dispute between Chavez and the Caracas metropolitan police.     Chavez has ordered the metropolitan police to disarm and has placed troops in many areas because he accuses the local police of siding with the strikers.     What is certain, however, is that the homicide rate for Venezuela is exploding. During the weekend period from 6 p.m. on Feb. 7 to 6 p.m. Feb. 9, for example, 129 people were killed -- including 61 in Caracas, according to police statistics.     In the like 48-hour period March 7 to March 9, 108 were killed, including 34 in Caracas, a city of 3 million.     According to the Pan-American Health Organization, Caracas ranks per capita as the second-deadliest city in the hemisphere, behind Cali, Colombia.     "The difference is, there are guerrillas and war in Colombia, and our people are dying only because of unchecked, violent crime," said Ivan Simonovis, a corporate security specialist and former chief of special operations for the Technical Judicial Police, Venezuela's equivalent of the FBI.