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Rogue State
http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/130914/rogue-stateIt is difficult to explain why Venezuela, in just 14 years, changed from having an enviable crime rate in the Americas, consisting of 20 murders per every 100.000 residents, to a crime rate of 73 murders; causing Venezuela to reach one of the highest crime rate in the world in 2012, with 21.692 homicides, according to the statistics handled by the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVI).
According to the writer and specialist in security, Marcos Tarre the high criminality rates existing at the present time are linked with the rise of organized crime, in a sinister equation arose out of corruption, which results in the strengthening of organized crime, and which as a consequence triggers between 34% and 55% of the homicides committed in the country. "In Venezuela, we do not have extreme situations/groups like the Mexican drug cartels, but we do have a murder rate much higher than Mexico's." For Marcos Tarre, in Venezuela, there is social acceptance regarding corruption.
Carlos Tablante, who has worked on the research of organized crime in Venezuela, asserts that there exists a parallel economy in low income barrios of the main cities of the country, which is ruled by illicit capital linked with drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion and contract killings. These criminal organizations dispute among them the control over territories, the control of illicit activities and the money flow. The permanent confrontation that prevails between them triggers a violence situation that is responsible for 40% of the homicides in the country.
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They outline in the aforementioned book that another factor that has made organized crime to forge ahead, besides the role that corruption plays in that violence equation, is the tolerance and even governmental indulgence regarding the existence of irregular armed groups in Venezuela, such as the Bolivarian Armed Forces of Liberation (FBL) or the so called collectives like La Piedrita, Carapaica, and other base groups that control the local markets of drug, arms traffic, kidnappings and extortion behind a political facade.