Wave of weekend violence leaves 56 dead in Caracas
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| Published on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 |
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) -- Fifty-six people were murdered in Caracas over the weekend, in a wave of weekend violence that left the local morgue overflowing with bodies, local press reported Tuesday.
News reports on the deadly violence cited figures provided by the local morgue because the government stopped disclosing homicide statistics months ago, as polls showed crime surpassing unemployment and inflation as the top concern of Venezuelans.
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| Police officers escort two Venezuelan teenagers at a police station after being arrested for assault with a deadly weapon in the district of Sucre, Caracas. AFP PHOTO |
"They killed him to steal 10 bolivars (4.6 dollars)," read the headline of one story published Tuesday in the daily Ultimas Noticias, about a 19-year-old gunned down in the impoverished Petare neighborhood.
The dead included a police officer killed while trying to stop a robbery, the reports said, one of 36 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 organization.
In Caracas last there there were 100 homicides for every 100,000 inhabitants, the group said, compared to a world rate of 8.8 homicides for every 100,000 persons.
The Venezuelan government said in early 2009 that the number of homicides had dropped by 20 percent in 2008, but provided no details.
The last official tally was 9,653 murders nationwide between January and September 2008. | | | | Reads : 1072 | | | |
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