Chavez criticizes US take on crime in Venezuela

[Bacchus4.0]

http://news.yahoo.com/chavez-criticizes-us-crime-venezuela-235929830.html;_ylt=Au_HFRT5TFxBx._eMfeFtw.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTVoNmV1bm11BGNjb2RlA2dtcHRvcDEwMDBwb29sd2lraXVwcmVzdARtaXQDTmV3cyBGb3IgWW91IDUgU3RvcmllcwRwa2cDNGQ4N2EwOWYtZDg5ZS0zZmY5LWEyN2ItNTFkMGUzNTFjNGVjBHBvcwM1BHNlYwNNZWRpYUJMaXN0TWl4ZWROZXdzRm9yWW91Q0EEdmVyA2RhMjM3YTIwLTc4ZDktMTFlMS1iNjVmLWMxZTVlMWJkMmZmYw--;_ylg=X3oDMTFrM25vcXFyBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdAMEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnMEdGVzdAM-;_ylv=3

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is taking issue with the U.S. State Department for posting a statement advising travelers to beware of rampant violent crime in his country.

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The website of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas includes a link to the statement on State Department travel site describing safety threats in Venezuela. The statement notes that violent crime in the country is widespread and says the murder rate has been cited as being among the top five in the world.

The statement refers to increasing numbers of killings and kidnappings in the country, and cites data from the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a non-governmental group tracks crime. The organization's tally of homicide figures from police totaled more than 19,000 during 2011, and it described the year as the most violent in Venezuela's history.

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Chavez defended his socialist government's anti-crime efforts and said violent crime is a problem "inherited from the capitalist time" before he took office in 1999.

[dipsydoodle]

1. For comparison here's the UK's Foreign Office advise on Venezuela

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/south-america/venezuela

And for the USA :

There is a general threat from terrorism in the United States. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers. See Safety and Security - Terrorism.



Does the US also warn its citizens about FL.

[Bacchus4.0]

2. seems consistent with the US warning regarding crime

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16033717



the US has or had its own warnings on Britain

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2024229/UK-RIOTS-2011-World-governments-warn-citizens-avoid-violence-plagued-Britain.html

no sacrcasm.

[naaman fletcher]

3. Are you suggesting

that a tourist to the US faces anywhere near the threat of crime that a tourist to Venezuela does?

[ocpagu]

5. I think it will always depends on where you are staying.

I've been to Caracas some years ago and stayed at a small hotel in El Recreo. I felt completely safe, and I did a lot of sightseeing.

I also felt safe when I was in Chicago, but my colleagues from the Dominican University kept telling me that I should avoid taking walks without a local. They almost freaked out when I told them I went to Hyde Park to take pics alone.

I think people tend to exaggerate about this topic and I think US government warnings are way too alarmist. Some common sense and you'll be ok, almost everywhere.

[naaman fletcher]

6. fair enough

I generally agree. I have walked all over downtown Nairobi and have been perfectly fine, despite everyone warning me I will be robbed the second I step onto the street.

[Vogon_Glory]

4. Law And Order Is An Issue That Resonates With People Across The Political Spectrum

Law and Order is an issue that resonates with people across the political spectrum from flat-out anarchists to Maoists to those few remaining royalists entertaining the Divine Right of Kings (Except, perhaps, those privileged souls with their own private armies of bodyguards). I think we ALL want to be relatively safe, whether we live in a Thirst World kleptocracy, a democratic republic slouching towards that direction, a European-style social-democracy, a "socialist paradise" or a flat-out state socialist dictatorship like North Korea's.

At the risk of annoying certain souls, I think that law and order is a function of government, and that governments that fail to pursue and punish criminals ought to be held accountable by their citizens and, if need be, fired.

[Lasher]

7. That's quite a stretch for Chavez to blame Venezuela's murder rate on his predecessors.

After more than a decade under his rule, their murder rate has more than tripled - from 19 per 100,000 in 1998 to 67 per 100,000 in 2011.

Figures don't lie but liars figure.