Reports Names Venezuela the Second Deadliest Country in the World, Says Homicide Rate Increased Since 2013
A recent report by a Venezuelan NGO called the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, OVV in Spanish, reveals that the South American country has the second-highest murder rate in the world.
OVV released the report on Monday providing information arguing the homicide rate in Venezuela has increased since 2013, according to Sexto Poder Radio.
The report says there were 24,980 "violent deaths" in the past year, leading to an 82 murders per 100,000 people ratio. This is higher than last year's number of 79 per 100,000 people. The country is only second to Honduras, which has a murder rate of 104 per 100,000.
The NGO's president, Roberto Briceno Leon, talked about the violence issues plaguing Venezuela.
According to El Universal, the OVV chastised the government for failing to reign in violence, despite various planned programs and proclamations to counter the rising violence.
The Ministry of the Interior, however, says Venezuela's homicide rate stands at 39 per 100,000, well below OVV's numbers.
"The official censorship of crime and violence data that the country has had for 11 years forces the researchers from the seven national universities that comprise the Observatory ... to provide the nation with our estimates of violent deaths this year ... apart of the partial information obtained from different parts of the country," quoted El Universal from the report.
InSight Crime, an organization that tracks crime in Latin America, argues that the numbers can be contested, but the rise in violence cannot, and can be tracked back to the election of Hugo Chavez.
Police corruption, unenforced gun laws and lack of security funding as well as cocaine trafficking has led to increased violence, the group posits.
United Nations' data also supports the idea of Venezuela's rising murder rate.
In their 2013 Global Study on Homicide the U.N. found that Venezuela is the only South American nation to continue to see an increase in homicides since 1995. In 2013, the country's murder rate was 53 per 100,000, according to the U.N.
Among those murdered this year are legislator Robert Serra of the leading Socialist party and LGBT activist Giniveth Soto.
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