Murder spree has Caracas morgue overflowing

[spanza]

Posted October 7, 2009 09:00:00

Fifty-six people were murdered in Caracas over the weekend in a wave of violence that left the Venezuelan capital's morgue overflowing with bodies.

Local media cited figures provided by the morgue because the government stopped disclosing homicide statistics months ago, as polls showed crime surpassing unemployment and inflation as the top concern of Venezuelans.

"They killed him to steal 10 bolivars ($5.20)," read the headline of one story published in the daily Ultimas Noticias about a 19-year-old shot in the impoverished Petare neighbourhood.

The dead included a police officer killed while trying to stop a robbery, the reports said, one of 36 officers murdered so far this year.

There were 49 homicides in Venezuela in 2008 for every 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Observatorio Venezolano de la Violencia, a non-governmental organisation.

In Caracas last year there were 100 homicides for every 100,000 inhabitants, the group said, compared to a world rate of 8.8 homicides per 100,000 people.

The Venezuelan government said earlier this year that the number of homicides had dropped by 20 per cent in 2008, but provided no details.

The last official tally was 9,653 murders nationwide between January and September 2008.

- AFP

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/07/2706785.htm