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Latin America
Related: About this forumVenezuela’s Murder Epidemic Rages on Amid State of Emergency
http://time.com/4341450/venezuela-state-of-emergency-murder-caracas/Meeting the killers of Caracas as opposition to President Nicolas Maduro brings Venezuela to the brink
At the Bello Monte morgue in Caracas, the smell of death reeks out from the buildings to the surrounding streets and to the dozens of people waiting on the sidewalks to collect the corpses of their loved ones. The odor of the rotting bodies is so strong because of power cuts hitting the air conditioning and the sheer number of cadavers. Every half hour or so, ambulances arrive with new corpses, the vast majority of them homicide victims. The morgue serves the whole of Caracas, which has become one of the most murderous cities on the planet.
The violence has got worse and worse. It is a devastating situation. There are killers everywhere, said Jose Medina, a 51-year-old musician, who was sat outside the morgue, waiting to collect the body of his cousin. Gunmen had shot his cousin dead in a taxi he drove in an apparent robbery, Medina said. It has got dangerous to just be on the street. Many of us stay indoors at night, imposing a curfew on ourselves.
The countrys runaway murder rate is just one of the factors driving opposition to President Nicolas Maduro in a country where shortages of food and basic goods are chronic, inflation is running rampant and the government is jailing political prisoners. But it serves as a bloody illustration of just how close to outright societal collapse Venezuela has come since the end of the 20th century, as gangs, guerrillas and militia defend their turfs and traditional authority structures fall by the wayside.
At the Bello Monte morgue in Caracas, the smell of death reeks out from the buildings to the surrounding streets and to the dozens of people waiting on the sidewalks to collect the corpses of their loved ones. The odor of the rotting bodies is so strong because of power cuts hitting the air conditioning and the sheer number of cadavers. Every half hour or so, ambulances arrive with new corpses, the vast majority of them homicide victims. The morgue serves the whole of Caracas, which has become one of the most murderous cities on the planet.
The violence has got worse and worse. It is a devastating situation. There are killers everywhere, said Jose Medina, a 51-year-old musician, who was sat outside the morgue, waiting to collect the body of his cousin. Gunmen had shot his cousin dead in a taxi he drove in an apparent robbery, Medina said. It has got dangerous to just be on the street. Many of us stay indoors at night, imposing a curfew on ourselves.
The countrys runaway murder rate is just one of the factors driving opposition to President Nicolas Maduro in a country where shortages of food and basic goods are chronic, inflation is running rampant and the government is jailing political prisoners. But it serves as a bloody illustration of just how close to outright societal collapse Venezuela has come since the end of the 20th century, as gangs, guerrillas and militia defend their turfs and traditional authority structures fall by the wayside.
The murder rate is essentially the reason why so many Venezuelans who are middle-class and above are leaving the country. Even if they're leaving and starting from scratch in another country, it's still better to go through those difficulties than to live in a country where physical security is almost null. Venezuela has a higher murder rate than Syria. Let that sink in.
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Venezuela’s Murder Epidemic Rages on Amid State of Emergency (Original Post)
Marksman_91
May 2016
OP
Maybe Maduro can get some tips from Assad on how to reduce the murder rate nt
Bacchus4.0
May 2016
#2
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)1. Venezuela is, without exaggeration now teetering on the brink.
Unless Maduro takes immediate action to improve the lot of the average Venezuelan citizen by respecting and having other governmental institutions repect the new Legislature's laws (a move which I believe is less than unlikely), I don't see how this doesn't deteriorate to the point where a military coup d'etat becomes inevitable. And if this happen, the blood is directly on Maduro's hands.
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)3. Maduro should have his bags packed. I am thinking Bolivia or Nicaragua.
No-one else would take him
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)4. The thing is, I doubt he would be very happy in either
place. Perhaps one of several European countries that have lax (or nonexistent) extradition treaties with the U.S. and/or Venezuela. With the amount of $$$ he and his cronies have pilfered from the Venezuelan people they should be able to live like kings in exile.
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)2. Maybe Maduro can get some tips from Assad on how to reduce the murder rate nt
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)5. Bravo!