Venezuela registers an average of 8.5 murders per day, a decrease compared to 2020

Venezuela registered 3,112 homicides in 2021, an average of 8.5 per day, down 25% over the previous year, according to a report presented this Tuesday by the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), which serves as a reference in the absence of official figures .

The NGO indicated that this year 11,081 violent deaths were reported, a categorization that includes homicides, deaths due to resistance to authority and causes still under investigation.

The number of homicides represents 40.9 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, 10% less than in 2020. But, compared to United Nations data, it is seven times more than the world average of 6.1 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Roberto Briceño-Leon, sociologist and president of the OVV, indicated that Venezuela, with a population of almost 30 million people, and Honduras, are the “most violent countries in Latin America”.

Of the total number of violent deaths in Venezuela, homicides fell 25% compared to 2020, when 4,153 were registered.

Briceño-Leon He explained that this phenomenon responds in principle to the paralysis that the pandemic caused by Covid-19 brought, but also to the deep crisis, which adds eight years of recession and four with hyperinflation, and produced a “reduction in crime opportunities.”

The exodus of 2.5 million young people between 15 and 29 years old, who constitute the age range “nucleus of violence” for both victims and perpetrators, also influenced the decline.

Another factor, the sociologist pointed out, is “The growing dominance of organized crime” in popular areas, “That regulates, puts a stop to murders”, instead of the state.

Authorities occupied a gigantic Caracas neighborhood in July after days of clashes with the mega-gang that controlled the area. Twenty-two “criminals” were killed, according to the official balance.

The public transport reported 2,332 deaths at the hands of the police in what is classified as “resistance to authority”, a category that also registered a drop compared to 2020. The NGO maintains that the population fears and mistrusts the police forces.

The so-called “deaths under investigation”, the cause of which has not been elucidated, closed at 4,003, and suicides at 1,164. The NGO also began to register “disappeared” persons this year, which it estimated at 1,634.

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