[Peace-discuss] Fw: ZNet Daily Commentary: Chavez: Security a Priority By Eva Golinger

[David Green]

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Subject: ZNet Daily Commentary: Chavez: Security a Priority By Eva Golinger

 
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Chavez: Security a Priority
September 4, 2010 By Eva Golinger
 
Eva Golinger's ZSpace Page / ZSpace
 
The Venezuelan Government is taking concrete steps to combat a rise of criminal 
activity and insecurity in the country by also addressing the root cause of 
violence: Poverty
 
The New York Times mistakenly headlined last week that violence in Venezuela is 
worse than Iraq. The sensationalist and distorted article, authored by 
correspondent Simon Romero, fed an ongoing anti-Chavez campaign attempting to 
portray Venezuela as a failed state.
 
Pulling on non-official figures of crime statistics in Caracas and declarations 
exclusively from anti-Chavez analysts, Romero engaged in the worst kind of 
yellow-journalism, distracting from the hundreds of thousands of Iraquis killed 
in the US-led war in the days before President Obama’s announcement of an “end 
to combat”, to turn the focus to another one of Washington’s targets, Venezuela 
–much closer to home.
 
That crime exists in Caracas is undeniable. But to somehow imply, as opposition 
media in Venezuela do daily, that crime and violence are the “fault” of the 
Chavez administration is not only absurd, but also dangerously sinister.
 
Just like in any major urban area around the world, there are frequent incidents 
of homicide, armed robbery, burglary, and muggings, often exacerbated by the 
visibly stark divisions of wealth between a minority upper class and a majority 
poor. Long ago, well before Hugo Chavez became president, middle and upper class 
neighborhoods erected giant walls and electric fences to live behind, hiding 
their wealth from the eyes of those with lesser means.
 
The growth of the wealthy class in Venezuela is largely based on another form of 
violence and crime, rarely reported in mainstream media. Throughout much of the 
twentieth century, as Venezuela’s oil industry grew, corruption and so-called 
“white collar crime” grew with it. Despite oil being nationalized in 1976, 
poverty increased exponentially as millions in oil wealth were embezzled and 
stolen by the political and economic elite in power.
 
They then hid their stolen riches behind gated communities and concrete walls, 
and bought properties in Miami, New York, Aruba, Curaçao and the Dominican 
Republic, so the majority poor couldn’t see how they had ravaged the nation, and 
wouldn’t reclaim what rightfully belonged to the people of Venezuela.
 
SOCIAL ROOTS
 
Crime in Venezuela has complex social and political roots. The violence of the 
elite classes that held power throughout the latter half of the twentieth 
century created a severely impoverished, under-educated, malnourished and 
excluded majority. Addressing crime and security in Venezuela today requires 
finding solutions for the larger social ills facing the nation.
 
The policies of the Chavez government are focused on eradicating poverty and 
misery as a first and essential step towards national development and progress. 
More than 60% of oil profits today are invested in social programs, providing 
free, quality healthcare and education to all Venezuelans; creating job-training 
programs and new forms of employment through worker-run businesses and 
cooperatives; and ensuring food security and sovereignty through a recuperation 
and expansion of the nation’s agricultural industry together with state-run 
supermarkets and distribution centers that ensure basic food products are 
accessible and affordable to all.
 
Extreme poverty has been reduced by more than 50% during the past ten years, and 
Venezuela’s literacy program has been hailed as a “model for the world” by the 
United Nations. Today, Venezuelans are eating better, are better educated, have 
more buying power and are actively participating in their political and social 
processes. A new model of communal economy, where communities run their own 
markets, banks and local services, is being created in order to change the 
mentality of entitlement imposed by the paternal oil state.
 
At the same time, there has been an increase in non-traditional criminal 
activities during the past ten years, including kidnappings, “express 
kidnappings”, paid assassinations and gang-related murders, most of which take 
place in the barrios – poor neighborhoods sprawled on the hillsides of Caracas, 
or in border regions. However, this type of violence has often been exported 
from neighboring Colombia, one of the most violent countries in the world, in 
the form of paramilitary forces seeking to gain territory inside Venezuela and 
aid the conservative opposition in destabilizing the Chavez government to the 
point of regime change.
 
Drug-related violence and crime also encompass a majority of incidents in the 
nation, and while Venezuela is not a drug-producing nation, Colombia is, and 
exporting drugs to Venezuela has become a key business for Colombian 
drug-traffickers.
 
COMBATING CRIME
 
So, while this reality does exist, the Chavez administration has taken key, 
concrete and effective steps to respond to a circumstance inherited from the 
neglect, abandonment and corruption from governments past.
 
In addition to addressing the roots of poverty and crime through social programs 
and inclusionary policies, the Chavez government is also dealing directly with 
day-to-day violence through the creation of a new police force, the National 
Bolivarian Police, and a heightened security presence throughout the country.
 
On Wednesday, Minister for Interior and Justice Tareck El Aissami, oversaw the 
permanent deployment of National Bolivarian Police, National Reserve, Homeland 
Guards and officials from the Transit Authority to secure the 47 metro stations 
in greater Caracas. Over one thousand forces from these four state security 
bodies will police the main artery of public transportation in the Venezuelan 
capital during its hours of operation, in an effort to reduce criminal activity 
and ensure commuter safety.
 
A nationwide security deployment also began earlier this year, the Bicentennial 
Security Deployment (Dibise), combining National Guard, counter-narcotics and 
national police forces charged with combating drug-trafficking activity and 
reducing incidents of kidnapping, homicides and general crime. To date there 
have been thousands of arrests and tons of drugs and illegal arms confiscated.
 
As part of the creation of the National Bolivarian Police force, a new 
University of Security was inaugurated earlier this year, which will provide in 
depth professional academic and physical training for aspiring officers. Human 
rights and studies of social inequalities are required material for all cadets, 
in an effort to build a non-corrupt, non-repressive, socially conscious security 
force.
 
This pioneering effort will create Venezuela’s first professional police force 
and will eventually result in the phasing out of other non-professional, corrupt 
forces operating on a local and regional level.
 
While the national government is engaging in these concrete steps to reduce 
crime and violence, local governments – both state and municipal, which control 
police forces, are doing little or nothing to combat insecurity. The states with 
the highest crime rates are Miranda, Tachira and Zulia, all three in the hands 
of opposition, anti-Chavez governors. All three of those states also have the 
highest presence of Colombian paramilitary forces, which appear to operate 
freely with the approval of those governors.
 
As poverty is eradicated and Venezuelans become more socially aware and increase 
their own participation and responsibility in the building of their nation, 
crime will dissipate. The combination of social polices directed at improving 
the well being of all Venezuelans and concrete steps to reduce crime, increase 
police presence and build non-corrupt forces will ensure long-term safety and 
security in Venezuela.
________________________________

From: Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives
URL: http://www.zcommunications.org/chavez-security-a-priority-by-eva-golinger
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