Crisis Point: How a Weak State is Fuelling Kidnapping and Crime in Venezuela
Caracas, Venezuela’s capital city, has been described as the ‘kidnap capital of the world’. In recent years, the city’s security situation has gone from bad to worse, and is symptomatic of a deepening economic crisis, rising political tensions, and an increasingly corrupt law enforcement system afflicting the wider country. The situation is reportedly so dire that even anti-kidnap police are carrying out kidnappings. Although statistics on kidnappings in Venezuela are inaccurate, it is clear that incidents are on the rise, driven by a proliferation of small kidnap gangs. With the local currency nearly worthless, kidnap gangs are increasingly demanding US dollar ransoms. As such, foreign nationals are prime targets.
Crime statistics, including kidnappings, are outdated, underreported, and likely manipulated. In the past, the Venezuelan government has admitted to deliberately refraining from releasing crime statistics to improve public perceptions of security. The government has also not released homicide statistics since 2013, when the national homicide rate reportedly stood at 39 murders per 100,000 inhabitants (compared to 27 in Brazil, for example). The Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a local NGO, estimates that the current homicide rate is likely around 90 per 100,000 while the homicide rate in Caracas is reportedly worse, at an estimated 120 homicides per 100,000. Similarly, kidnapping incidents have increased significantly, from an average of 60 kidnappings a year in 1999 to over 1,000 in 2014. Venezuela’s estimated kidnap rate per inhabitant is reportedly the highest in the region, and is almost double that of Mexico. The actual number of kidnappings is likely to be much higher, however, given that an estimated 80 percent of kidnappings in Venezuela go unreported for fear of reprisals and/or general distrust of authorities.
Several factors, both economic and political, are driving this increase in violent crime and kidnappings in Venezuela. The economy is on the verge of collapse and the Venezuelan government looks set to default on its international loans in the next 12 months. Growing unemployment, hyperinflation – currently estimated at 720 percent, and widespread food and basic necessity shortages have accelerated a spiralling crime problem. In turn, this had led to a proliferation of express kidnapping gangs in the country seeking quick monetary returns. Moreover, due to the weakening of the bolívar, which has lost 81 percent of its value in the last 12 months, these gangs are increasingly demanding ransoms in foreign currencies. Average ransom demands for wealthy Venezuelan nationals now range from approximately USD 50,000 to USD 70,000, but can often exceed USD 1 million. On average, ransom demands for foreign nationals come close to, or exceed, USD 1 million. In a recent incident, in May 2015, kidnappers demanded USD 700,000 for the release of a Spanish businessman in Aragua State.
Venezuela’s government has proved incapable of launching meaningful reforms to address the country’s economic and security problems. Although many expected the opposition’s landslide victory in the December 2015 parliamentary elections to bring sweeping change to Venezuela, little to no progress has been made. The government is now caught in a political stalemate between an opposition-controlled legislature and a ruling party-controlled executive and judiciary. Efforts by the opposition coalition to overhaul Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy and address high-level government corruption have been stifled by the Supreme Court, which is also under the control of the ruling party. Similarly, the opposition has hit a wall in its attempts to address Venezuela’s notoriously corrupt justice system and state security agencies. Under the governments of the late Hugo Chávez and current President Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan state has further failed to address deficiencies among the security forces. The government has announced a new security plan every year since 1999, for example, only to overhaul them at a later stage. There have been approximately 23 such plans as a result. Meanwhile, corruption has proliferated within the country’s various police forces. Venezuela is consistently rated as the most corrupt country in Latin America where 83 percent of Venezuelans believe the police are corrupt or extremely corrupt.
As the economy continues to worsen and the bolívar’s value plummets, foreign nationals, who are presumed to have access to large amounts of dollars and euros, are likely to be increasingly targeted for kidnap for ransom in Venezuela.
Venezuela’s state security forces are poorly-paid, poorly-trained, and underequipped. Previous studies have found that police are involved in 80 percent of all kidnappings in Caracas. Similar levels of police involvement in kidnappings are also reported in other parts of the country. Corrupt military and intelligence personnel also reportedly collude in kidnappings, supplying kidnap gangs with confidential financial information on their potential targets, such as tax returns. The creation of a central government anti-kidnap and anti-extortion body (CONAS) and state-level tactical units (GAES) in 2013 has done little to address the problem. GAES personnel have also been implicated in several kidnappings, whilst the director of one of the state-level anti-kidnap units in Bolívar State was recently arrested on allegations of extortion.
Caracas is at the epicentre of police corruption in Venezuela. Caracas’ metropolitan police were reportedly so corrupt that the government decided to completely disband this 6,000-strong force in 2011. Policing in Caracas under the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), a branch of the armed forces which took over from the metropolitan police, did initially improve as its better-equipped and better-paid personnel were more effective at combating crime and helped to garner the public’s trust. Fast-forward five years however, and the GNB, much like its predecessor, is now synonymous with drug-trafficking, repression, extortion, and kidnapping. The GNB has also become inexorably politicised and is widely recognised by international human rights agencies as being a repressive government arm used to crack down on anti-government groups.
Amidst this worsening security environment, expatriates and foreign business travellers should maintain an increasingly low profile in Venezuela, particularly in Caracas. A number of foreign nationals are reportedly taking extra measures to ensure their security, including: tinting car windows, dressing modestly, avoiding going out at night, and not stopping at traffic lights. As the economy continues to worsen and the bolívar’s value plummets, foreign nationals, who are presumed to have access to large amounts of dollars and euros, are likely to be increasingly targeted for kidnap for ransom in Venezuela. Foreign kidnap victims and their relatives can expect little to no help from local Venezuelan authorities, however.
For now, Venezuela’s security situation remains severe and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. The various state security agencies need to be overhauled to root out corruption. However, a cash-strapped government caught up in a protracted political dogfight, and undermined by rampant corruption, is highly unlikely to be able to implement the necessary reforms. As such, the threats of violent crime and kidnapping will remain acute for the foreseeable future. The streets of Caracas, once famed for their nightlife and safety, are at the centre of the country’s crime and kidnapping wave. Foreign business travellers unfamiliar with the city’s high-risk areas and its notoriously corrupt security forces, remain particularly vulnerable to violent crime and kidnapping.