VHeadline commentarist Oscar Heck writes: Here are three responses I just received from three separate VHeadline.com readers regarding my last article entitled, "Oscar Heck: Well … another day on the "violence" streets of Venezuela…"

The other side of the story ... or at least, the other side of someone else's story … about safety and violence in Venezuela. I publish the three letters in their entirety below and comment on each afterward. Enjoy.

Hey Oscar, Let me tell you... GAMBLING in Venezuela is what you did ... I Love the place, the people, the culture, but... In my 15 months, here's my rift. 14.95 months of GREAT, just like you said nice people and no problems. As I was working, here's the report; Jose rides the bus to work, he and his bus-mates were robbed TWICE while I was there. I lived in the nicest neighbourhood, my neighbor was robbed at noon, in broad daylight, by a guy on a bicycle (and a knife). there were TWO separate murders within four blocks of my home. One woman at work had her car vandalised and an attempted radio theft (unsuccessful), in mid-day. Our office was robbed. One client said of the two crooks, that she was sure one was a policeman from a nearby (15km) police post I witnesses five occasions of piles of old tires burning and toxic pollution due to protests. I witnesses two complete closures of the main motorway, for hours, due to protests. My good friend came to visit in a little Fiat, when I asked "where's your Blazer?" he said it was stolen at gun-point three days earlier. But YES, no one attacked ME, I had a pleasant time, and I'm white. But the facts are DIFFERENT than what you may experience. The RISK is higher, and THAT'S a FACT! Cheers! Inge … ps. my Lat Am holiday suggestion... Costa Rica, beautiful, and 20x safer. Less guns, no military, and no burning tires!

My response, in point form:

- I do not gamble … and I never said I did.

- Most robbers (anywhere in the world, not only in Venezuela) will rob people who have something to rob. Who is Jose?

- Who was murdered and why? Was it an innocent bystander? Or was the person involved in some kind of criminal activity? Or was it an act of vengeance or a fight over a woman?

- I have only heard of two persons being assassinated for no reason, both accidentally, in over 30 years, here in Venezuela. (I also have/had two friends who were assassinated due to fights over women.) Does the letter-writer personally know of anyone who was assassinated in Venezuela for no reason?

- One of the countries with the highest car-theft rates in the world is in fact Canada. My father had his car stolen in Montreal in 1988, I had mine destroyed in 1995 in front of a police station in Montreal during a snow storm. One of my clients, who came up to Montreal from NYC in 1987, had his car stolen at a gas station in full daylight in 40 below weather … and so on and so on and so on … and … my brother-in-law had his car stolen in Tachira (Venezuela) about a month ago. Car theft is common in almost all parts of the world and it is a very lucrative capitalist business, like drug trafficking.

- Banks, offices, homes, trucks, jewellery stores, anything … gets robbed almost anywhere in the world almost all the time … especially in large cities … but it is not overly sensationalized as it is here in Venezuela by the anti-Chavez media (see below). Home invasions, for instance, are now a fad in Canada, besides other common kinds of thefts.

- The lowest crime rates, from my personal experience, exist in Native communities (Crees and Mohawks, for example) and in countries like Saudi Arabia, places where I've spent quite a lot of time.

- Of course one of the crooks was probably a policeman. This has been going on in Venezuela for generations, as in many parts of the world. I know this … and so do most Venezuelans. But the crooked police generally choose their victims for particular reasons, including for bribes or protection money. Furthermore, some National Guard and police in Venezuela, as in most parts of the world, are involved in extra-judicial assassinations. I personally met one policeman and one National Guard who do such killings. They usually kill off the criminals that the corrupt justice system, a remnant of the pre-Chavez days, lets through the cracks by payment of bribes to judges. I know a judge who explained how this works. And … police implication in crime is not exclusive to Venezuela. Canada, amongst many countries of the world is well known for this.

- I also saw the roads being blocked with burning tires and tree trunks and metal bars and cement blocks and cars and trucks … in Altamira and on the Autopista del Este and in Santa Ines in 2002 and 2003. I also witnessed violence and they even tried to kill me in Santa Ines (a wealthy mid-to-upper class urbanization) because I was not anti-Chavez. The vast majority of the perpetrators of these events were members or supporters of the violent Venezuelan opposition led by the CTV, Fedecamaras and Gente Del Petroleo. The CTV and Fedecamaras were directly financed by the US government's National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a US-government organization created during Reagan's time to legally divert illegal CIA funding to pro-USA organizations abroad.

- I disagree that the facts are different from what I have experienced. What I have experienced in over 30 years in Venezuela is indeed different to what the letter-writer has experienced in Venezuela in 15 months. However, the facts remain the same, either way. For example, since I live and work with the poor, and since I rarely court the mid-to-upper classes in Venezuela, I may be less exposed to crimes such as theft or muggings, whereas one who lives and works and courts the mid-to-upper classes on a regular basis and one who attends exclusive (segregation) clubs and restaurants will obviously be at higher risk for crime, not only in Venezuela, but in almost any large city in the world.

Here is another point of view. Saudi Arabia has almost no crime of any kind. You can essentially leave a million dollars on the street and no one will take it. I lived there almost 6 years. Most westerners will not consider it theft to "find" a million dollars on the street and "take" it home … but in Saudi Arabia, it is considered theft. So, depending on one's inclination and human values, one might choose to live in Saudi Arabia, or maybe Canada or maybe Costa Rica or maybe with the Crees or the Bedouin … or maybe with the wealthy in Caracas or with the poor in the shantytown-barrios … or in Washington DC, one of the most crime-ridden cities of the world. There is also another point, I think. Crime has been on a dramatic increase worldwide for the last 30 years or so. Not only in Venezuela. One must ask the question why?

- The risks are higher where, why … and for whom? It all depends on the circumstances.

Here is the second respondent's letter:

You're basically blaming the victim? How insulting. The murder rate in Caracas is higher than any other place on earth. A statistic that is proven. Yes, there are many peaceful places in Venezuela. ...but your article is either ignorant or cynical, given the tragedy of thousands of dead in the streets every year. I have never read a more occidental mindset with regards to Venezuela.

My response: First, the writer of the letter does not know me or who I am or where I was born or raised or where I have lived or what wars I have lived through … but besides that … I could get into a very lengthy argument here. First, his "statistically proven" argument is completely false. In these last few years, probably the highest murder rates in any city or country are in Iraq and Afghanistan … and in Hiroshima and Nagasaki not so long ago … and in Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia … not so long ago either … and most of the people assassinated or being assassinated are/were innocent bystanders, women, children and old people … not street criminals, as is usually the case in Venezuela. Most of the murders in Caracas, for example, happen between criminals or between the police and criminals, very rarely affecting any innocent bystander. Furthermore, the greatest assassin in the world today and in the last few generations is and has been the USA, and this is a fact that is easily confirmed, "statistically" by anyone with any iota of a conscience or any inclination to see reality face-to-face. Secondly, I doubt the letter-writer cares about the "tragedy of thousands of dead in the streets every year." Those dead are mostly poor people and criminals, people whom the Venezuelan opposition basically continuously talks against, as if they were the scum of the earth!

So here is the third respondent …

Not sure what your motivation (probably pro-government) is but your article is very misleading and downright inaccurate/false! OK you may well have done those things you say but to suggest that this city (caracas) is not extremely dangerous is absolutely insane. There were 14 thousand murders last year in Venezuela and this year it is projected to have 18 thousand. And you paint a picture of peace and harmony that simply is untrue. I am an American working in Caracas and what you say is flat WRONG!

Again … same old song and dance. I can't figure it out. If these people are writing to me (and living in Caracas, for example), they must be alive, and probably well enough physically and financially to do so. (Mentally or emotionally might be another matter.) If I ask these people how many times they themselves were robbed or mugged or shot at, what would they respond? When I do ask the question, most people say something like, "Well, it never happened to me, but I know someone to whom it happened." So I ask, "Well, can I talk to the person who was robbed?" … and the answer usually comes back in this form, "Well, it was a friend of a friend, but we lost touch recently." And so on and so on. I asked my mother-in-law, who hates Chavez and listens to Globovision (see below), and who has lived all her life in Venezuela, and who always complains about crime … and she says she was never robbed in over 70 years of life in Venezuela.

I've repeated it so many times in the last 6 or so years … the vast majority of killings in Venezuela happen between criminals and/or police … and also for reasons of vengeance, family feuds (common in Zulia) and fights over women. Does that make Caracas or Venezuela (with its supposed 14,000 murders) any more dangerous than Washington DC, or the South Bronx or wherever, where you might get shot at for absolutely no reason? And how about Iraq and Afghanistan? Would one be "safer" under the "protection" of the "security forces" of the "grand" USA? How many innocent people have been murdered in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last few years? How about this last year?

One of the biggest problems in Venezuela is the opposition's mid-to-upper class controlled anti-Chavez media (El Nacional, El Universal, Globovision, RCTV and others) which continuously, and on a daily basis, make gigantic sensationalist headlines about how many murders are occurring in Caracas (usually in the shantytowns) … and people get all freaked out and paranoid.

I have lived and worked and been to some of the supposedly most "dangerous" parts of Caracas by day and night … and I have only been mugged once in Caracas in 1977 by a drunk who could not even hold the knife properly. I had no money on me, so we shook hands and parted … and I gave him some money the next time I saw him.

Is there anything wrong with that? And if that poor man gets attacked and murdered by some of his fellow competitors-in-crime or by some over-zealous policeman, will that directly infringe upon the liberty or security of someone who has nothing to do with the incident or someone who is not even there?

Irrational paranoia reigns in Venezuela, mostly amongst the minority wealthy mid-to-upper classes (including some ex-pats) and amongst those who deafly listen to Globovision and RCTV and blindly read El Universal and El Nacional.

Oscar Heck
oscar.heck@vheadline.com

http://www.vheadline.com/heck