<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><DIV>Bob, thanks for taking the time to do this.</DIV>
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<DIV>Of course, Romero didn't make a serious effort to put the Venezuelan murder rate in any kind of explanatory context, in general or in terms of changes over time. On this chart from 2006, we see (quite interestingly) that Venezuela is still behind <FONT color=#c00000>Colombia</FONT>, the world leader.</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita">http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita</A></DIV>
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<DIV>It's possible by now that Venezuela is close or ahead--it would appear that it's murder rate has gone from being 31 per 100,000 to somewhere between 50 and 60. That is, for the whole country, homicide rates are probably higher than for Baltimore, Detroit, and Washington D.C.</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States</A></DIV>
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<DIV>Nevertheless, like in the U.S., certain parts of Caracas are so murderous that they skew the figure for the entire country. Part of putting the national figures in perspective would be to sort things out, instead of lumping them together, of course. </DIV>
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<DIV>But that's obviously not the purpose of the article. It's to bash Chavez, and imply that his policies are somehow responsible. And they may be, in some sort of unintended manner that wouldn't necessarily reflect badly on his efforts for greater economic equality. One hypothesis might be that the nature of the institution of the police in Venezuela (or in Caracas, or the poor areas of Caracas) has something to do with this.</DIV>
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<DIV>It's just be accident that the populations of Iraq and Venezuela are comparable. Even if Venezuela's was twice as big, I'm sure Romero would have still proceeded with a nominal comparison based on Iraqi Body County figures.</DIV>
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<DIV>DG<BR></DIV>
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<B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Robert Naiman <naiman.uiuc@gmail.com><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> Peace-discuss List <peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Tue, August 24, 2010 3:40:06 PM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> [Peace-discuss] NYT Exploits Own Iraq Death Toll Denial to Trash Venezuela<BR></FONT><BR>It's bad enough that the editors of the New York Times have refused so<BR>far to tell the truth about what we know about the magnitude of the<BR>death toll in Iraq as a result of the US invasion and occupation of<BR>the country since 2003, according to the standards that are used to<BR>describe human tragedies for which the U.S. government does not bear<BR>primary responsibility.<BR><BR>But now the New York Times has exacerbated the harm of its denial<BR>about the Iraqi death toll, by using its own failure to
accurately<BR>report the death toll in Iraq as a benchmark for comparison to other<BR>human tragedies: in particular, to claim that murder in Venezuela<BR>claimed more lives in 2009 than did violence in Iraq. The New York<BR>Times editors are like the boy who killed his parents and demanded<BR>mercy on the grounds he was an orphan.<BR><BR><A href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/nyt-exploits-own-iraq-dea_b_693041.html" target=_blank>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/nyt-exploits-own-iraq-dea_b_693041.html</A><BR><BR><A href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/8/24/161914/546" target=_blank>http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/8/24/161914/546</A><BR><BR><A href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/688" target=_blank>http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/688</A><BR><BR>--<BR>Robert Naiman<BR>Policy Director<BR>Just Foreign Policy<BR>www.justforeignpolicy.org<BR><A href="mailto:naiman@justforeignpolicy.org"
ymailto="mailto:naiman@justforeignpolicy.org">naiman@justforeignpolicy.org</A><BR><BR>Urge Congress to Support a Timetable for Military Withdrawal from Afghanistan<BR><A href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/feingold-mcgovern" target=_blank>http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/feingold-mcgovern</A><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Peace-discuss mailing list<BR><A href="mailto:Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net" ymailto="mailto:Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net">Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net</A><BR><A href="http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss" target=_blank>http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss</A><BR></DIV></DIV></div><br>
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