Tuesday 18 August 2009

Venezuela's police and thugs


Tarek El Aissami, minister of Inner Affairs and Justice (number 10 in 10 years of chavismo), said he had new plans to reform the police in Venezuela. You can read his declarations in the site of the Venezuelan (sigh) communist party here.

One of the most interesting things he said was that 20% of all crimes committed in Venezuela were perpetrated by the police forces themselves. He also declared there were some 40000 policemen and policewomen in Venezuela and we needed more. I think we all can agree on that: 40000 police agents for over 26577423 million people are too few (read in Spanish here).

Now, think of this: 20% of all crimes are committed by the cops. That means that 0.15 %of the Venezuelan population commits 20% of all crimes. The average cop is thus around 150 times more likely to be a criminal than the average Venezuelan citizen. Of course, I am counting here babies and elderly and the criminal distribution among both sets can be very different. Still...


Ps. Venezuela's murder rate went from 19 murders per 100000 inhabitants in 1998 to over 65 now. If you think Mexico is a failed state, you haven't seen anything.


Ps2: If you are Venezuelan and you went to school in Venezuela, please, answer to the poll on the right if you haven't done so yet. Thanks!

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