Official tally: 2,165 people were killed in Caracas in 2008

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Official tally: 2,165 people were killed in Caracas in 2008
Most murders (1,524) took place in Libertador municipality

http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/01/12/en_pol_esp_official-tally:-2,16_12A2189617.shtml



The official statistics do not include people killed in clashes between rival gangs, crimes of passion or armed showdowns with police corps (Photo: Kisaí Mendoza)
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According to data gathered last year by the Venezuelan Ministry of the Interior and Justice, Caracas continues to be one of the most violent cities in the world. Some analysts claim that high crime rates in the Venezuelan capital are tantamount to the effects of Hurricane Katrina, one of the hurricanes that have caused the most fatalities and casualties, material losses and destruction ever in the United States.

The so-called "Plan Caracas Segura" (Safe Caracas program, a police plan to fight crime) has been in force for 12 months now. However, authorities reported that 2,165 people were killed in 2008 in the Venezuelan capital. This represents 329 people more than the fatalities caused by Hurricane Katrina -a category 3 hurricane that has been described as one of the deadliest natural disasters in US history and left 1,836 fatalities.

The official figures do not comprise crimes of passion, people killed in clashes between rival gangs, and "justified killings" that took place for "opposing resistance to the police." If these three items were added to the official statistics of murders, they would exceed 3,000 in 2008.

Libertador Municipality remains the most violent area of the capital city. The crime rate in this zone is the highest in the country, with the exception of Carabobo state, (central Venezuela) with 1,524 violent deaths.

The residents, merchants and bus drivers of Parish Antímano (an area of Libertador municipality) called a strike last October. According to the official results, Antímano is the third most dangerous parish in Caracas, after Petare (Sucre Municipality) and Catia (Libertador Municipality), with 160 murders. Meanwhile, Carapita is the most violent low-income neighborhood in Venezuela, since criminal gangs have killed there 70 people. Carapita is also the hideout of the most wanted criminal gang involved in theft of motorcycles.

Despite security plans, police officers at Caracas Metropolitan Police's (PM) Zone 3 have only seven motorcycles and four patrol cars available to watch over the neighborhoods comprised from La Yaguara through Las Adjuntas sectors.

Only 51 of the 164 local police stations of the Metropolitan Police are operating partially since they are open only during office hours. They close at night because the areas where they are based are extremely dangerous. In fact, 69 percent of the police stations are closed and have been taken over by homeless people.

In the municipality of Sucre, northeast Caracas, there were 540 violent deaths in 2008, making it the second municipality with the highest number of murders in the Venezuelan capital. In this area, two local police stations and three motorcycles of the Metropolitan Police were burned by residents.