CARACAS, (Reuters) – Children tussle after dark on a dusty soccer field used just weeks ago as a shooting range by local drug gangs, a sign that a new police force is making a mark on one of Venezuela’s most violent slums.
Under a system influenced by Northern Ireland’s Police Service, policemen now patrol the tangled alleys of the Catia neighborhood night and day, using community-focused policing to gather tips about local criminals who menace residents.
“After 6 p.m., this was basically under curfew,” said 40-year-old local resident Rocio Barrios. “These kids should be in their homes now because it’s late, but they are not in danger. We no longer feel in danger.”
Stacked toward the Caribbean Sea on steep hillsides in western Caracas, Catia and the surrounding area are home to around 400,000 people. It is one of the crime-wracked capital’s most notorious barrios.
Opposition parties have put the soaring national murder rate seen under President Hugo Chavez squarely at the heart of their campaign for Sept. 26 legislative elections in which they expect to slash the socialist’s parliamentary majority.
