CARACAS (Reuters) – At a workshop in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, technicians strip down a dozen luxury automobiles and begin the painstaking process of converting them into fortresses on wheels.
The pressure is on as workers swarm over the vehicles, carefully lifting out windows and replacing panels with thick metal plates — waiting in line outside are more customers with vehicles wanting the same treatment.
The South American country suffers one of the continent’s highest violent crime rates, and even though its economy is contracting, personal security is a booming business.
President Hugo Chavez’s socialist government says it is cracking down on offenders and will stem the bloodshed by putting better-paid, better-trained officers on the streets.
Chavez has acknowledged the growing public concern about crime ahead of legislative elections in September that are being seen as a vital test of the former paratrooper’s support in the run-up to a presidential poll in 2012.
Chavez’ assurances are little comfort to Diana De Sousa, a 25-year-old fashion designer who recounts the time she was car-jacked along with a friend as they drove to a night out at a shopping mall in eastern Caracas.
“It was the worst day of my life,” she says. “Two armed men on motorbikes, one of each side of us, screamed at us to get out of the car. My friend braked sharply, they grabbed us and threw us down, then they took everything and left us there.”
According to the Research Institute of Coexistence and Citizen Security (INCOCEC), a local non-governmental organization that says it gets its figures from police sources, there were 49 murders per 100,000 people in Venezuela last year.
That gives the country one of the highest rates in South America; comparisons of figures compiled by different sources suggest it is one of the top three along with Honduras and El Salvador.
In Caracas, the rate leaps to 140 per 100,000, so it is little surprise crime repeatedly tops Venezuelans’ list of worries. Most murders take place in the city’s huge slums, but in rich areas drivers, fearful that slowing down will give car jackers an opportunity, still run red lights on often deserted streets at night, when few people risk walking outside.
“The truth is we have created a self-imposed curfew because of the alarming rise of insecurity,” says Franklin Chaparro, an ex-police commissioner who now runs the Serseco security firm.
“The unprecedented violence is deeply disturbing … Now you have to learn how to get robbed here and still survive.”
A sharp spike in extortion and kidnappings has encouraged spending on personal protection. INCOCEC says the number of those incidents leaped 47 percent in the first three months of the year to 393 cases, compared with the same period in 2009. Robberies have also jumped.
Armouring a car costs between $12,000 and $25,000, depending on the level of protection wanted, and some customers also opt for satellite tracking devices, intercom systems and other ways to keep drivers insulated from the outside world.
“Our clients want protection from armed criminals on motorbikes who want their watch, their Blackberry or their car,” says Oscar Sabater, director of Armor Blindados, whose busy workshop is just one of dozens of companies offering similar vehicle-armoring services in Venezuela.
