Venezuelan Government Recognizes Record Murder Rate

Written by Miriam Wells Monday, 04 March 2013
A homicide scene in Venezuela The Venezuelan government has confirmed that over 16,000 people were killed in 2012, while over 2,000 were murdered during the first two months of 2013, pointing to little letup in the ongoing violence.

As EL Universal reports, figures released by national police agency the CICPC counted 2,576 murders in Venezuela during January and February 2013.

Meanwhile, Vice President Nicolas Maduro told Venezuela's National Assembly last week that there had been 16,072 recorded homicides in 2012, representing a rate of 56 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. However, as El Universal reports, an unofficial source at the CICPC said that Venezuela actually saw 21,600 homicides last year, a figure about 25 percent higher than Maduro's.


Maduro's numbers are significantly lower than those published by non-governmental organization (NGO) the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, which put the 2012 murder rate at 73 per 100,000. However, even the lower figure cited by Maduro is the highest ever recorded in the country, and the second-highest rate in the world.

http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/venezuelan-government-recognizes-record-murder-rate