Venezuela: Politics and Violence

Caracas beat another unenviable record in August 2011, when 563 dead bodies were carried into the city’s Bello Monte morgue. 85% of them were murder victims. On the last weekend of the month, Venezuela’s capital saw one violent death an hour on average. While Latin Americans are shocked about massacres in Mexico and used to violent news from Colombia, the fact that Venezuela has reached almost double Colombia’s homicide rate and over three times Mexico’s has practically escaped the world’s attention. So have the risks that – in the deeply polarised and militarised society that increasingly lacks institutional conflict-resolution mechanisms – criminal violence could turn into political violence. Read Article