CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela yesterday launched the first part of a national police force intended to end widespread police corruption in the South American nation, which has one of the world’s highest murder rates.
Polls show the high crime rate is the population’s main concern in the oil exporting nation, where about 14,000 people are murdered each year.
The new uniformed police force will operate initially in one poor neighborhood in the capital Caracas, but will be rolled out nationally in coming months. It is expected to have 5,000 officers by the end of 2010.
“We are going to beat crime with prevention and also with action,” Chavez, a self-proclaimed socialist revolutionary, said on his weekly television show, which he dedicated to the new police force and the prison system.
Chavez, who blames crime on capitalism, has failed to control soaring murder rates in his decade in power. He will defend a large legislative majority in September elections and risks losses if he cannot show progress on problems such as crime and deteriorating public services.
Venezuela’s current police are divided into hundreds of municipal and state forces, along with a national investigative unit and a civil intelligence agency. The army’s National Guard division also has crime fighting powers.
Rights groups say police officers are responsible for thousands of “extra-judicial” killings each year. Interior Minister Tarek El Aissami says up to 20 percent of crimes are committed by the police.
“This is a police force firm in its defense of human rights,” Chavez said of the new force, which will have a 2010 budget of about $800 million paid by the president’s office.
