Kidnapping rates: Venezuela beats Colombia again, but they aren't proud of it

Today, I learned another piece of information that confirms that under President Hugo Chávez, Venezuela has become a nation stricken with crime and violence. Long gone are the days when Colombians looked at our oil-rich neighbors with envy, when Venezuelans could say that theirs was the most promising country out of those liberated by Simón Bolívar about 200 years ago.

But the facts are that Venezuela in 2008 had the second highest homicide rate in Latin America with 52 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants (behind El Salvador's 61 pero 100,000 inhabitants -read this), and (this is what I learned today) the highest kidnapping rate in the region.

Last year, according to Venezuela's Ministry of Internal Relations and Justice there were 537 kidnappings in that country, which is one hundred more than those occurred in Colombia. Mexico, third on this infamous list, counted about 400 kidnappings in 2008. Between January 1st and May 21st of this year there had been 289 reported kidnappings in Venezuela, which means that if this trend continues, there will be around 820 kidnappings in that country in 2009.

Having a smaller population than both Colombia and Mexico, this means that Venezuela has a far higher kidnapping rate. It also means that, statistically, someone living in Venezuela is twice more likely of being kidnapped than someone living in Colombia. Considering Colombia's horrible history of kidnapping (in the year 2000 there were more than 3,000 kidnappings, mostly by the FARC), the fact that Venezuela is now Latin America's (and probably the world's) kidnapping capital is just telling of how deep that country has sunk under Mr. Chávez's rule.

Click on the graph

Of course, Mr. Chávez's government (if you can call it that) maintains that they are fighting hard to stop kidnappers and, specially, to address the "social causes" of these crimes (presumably, wealth inequality, poverty and lack of education -why do leftists believe that all criminals are poor, uneducated or jealous of how much their compatriots own? Did they forget that many of the world's most horrendous criminals are millionaires, like Bin Laden and Pablo Escobar? Many FARC leaders are holders of university degrees, too. Excuse me, but that kind of thinking seems to be awfully insulting towards the poor.)

As President Uribe has shown in Colombia, you fight crime with better law enforcement -but of course, Mr. Chávez is too busy squandering his country's massive oil wealth and making sure his family gets a big share of it. I hope Venezuelans soon realize that it doesn't have to be this way.

Read this excellent article by Simon Romero of the New York Times to find more information on this issue.