Bio coming soon more here.
In our previous post we asked who gets the blame for crime in Venezuela. In this one we ask what Venezuelans think can be done to reduce that crime. Since 2008 the Chávez and now Maduro governments have increasingly taken on the issue of crime, often in quite...
In the first half of this year we ran a series describing Venezuela’s comprehensive efforts at citizen security reform. We have also traced the process over the past six months, whereby the civilian character of this reform has lost out in favor of militarized...
Though described by many as an important step forward in curbing violence, the gun reform law passed in June came under criticism and scrutiny right out of the gate by opposition members, government supporters, and even police officers. While the opposition’s...
In the original version of this post we discussed the “Prevention Fund” and described the fund as one allocated to victims of gun violence. The fund, however, was only discussed as a possible fund for victims when it was under debate in the National Assembly. In the...
The recent announcement of the Plan Patria Segura by the Maduro government (see reports here and here), which puts the armed forces in the street alongside the National Police force, signals a continued reliance on the military to combat crime in the country (see...
As I noted in previous post, during the recent campaign Maduro took up citizen security as a banner in a way that his predecessor never did. Given that crime rates in the country rose significantly under Chávez this strategy was somewhat risky, drawing attention to a...
Capriles—as he did when campaigning against Chávez—has made crime and violence a main criticism of Maduro and the government in his speeches for the past month. Last year, Capriles swore to deal with crime within the span of a year, and this year he has again promised...
Differentiating his campaign from those of his predecessor, Nicolas Maduro has made crime and violence in the country a major talking point so far. Roberto Briceño and others have suggested that the Interim President, unable to hide behind a charismatic personality,...
[Moderator’s note: The rapid flow of events in Venezuela makes it difficult to do sustained analysis of anything, much less the complex issues involved in citizen security. In February we started a series on citizen security reform with posts on police reform, the...
At the recent graduation of 25 new Citizen Committees for Police Supervision (see previous post here) Soraya El Achkar, the Rector of the National Police University, and Luis Fernandez, the Director of the National Bolivarian Police (PNB, Policia Nacional...