Welcome to Venezuela, the kidnap capital of the world

[Bacchus4.0]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/welcome-to-venezuela-the-kidnap-capital-of-the-world/story-fni0xs61-1226758654049

FIVE people are kidnapped and held to ransom here every day and it has a murder rate on par with war zones.
Welcome to Venezuela - a country which has the highest kidnapping rate in the world and where law and order are failing so badly that even the criminal gangs are scared.

To say the South American nation is undergoing a kidnapping epidemic is an understatement.

In fact the situation is so bad that the Venezuelan police force has an elite Anti-Kidnap Squad.

SBS Dateline Reporter Kiki King travelled to the capital city of Caracas where she gained exclusive access to the elite squad.

In the footage which went to air on SBS last night. Ms King took part in a recovery operation to help free a 27-year-old victim.

[HooptieWagon]

1. I visited Venezuela a couple times about 20 yrs ago.

It was a big problem then.

[Marksman_91]

2. Well, I was born and raised there...

... and while it was already a problem some decades ago, it was nowhere near as bad as it is now.

[HooptieWagon]

3. That may be.

I haven't been there since my earlier visits. All I know is that it was a big concern at that time. If its worse now, it must be really bad.

[Marksman_91]

4. Crime is simply out of control compared to a decade ago

It's the very reason why I left the country and decided to do my studies abroad. My parents and my sister are still living there, plus almost all of my family on my father's side, and most of my friends from high school, who I still keep close contact with. Plus I'm always checking for all the main news outlets of the country in hopes of maybe hearing some good news eventually. Unfortunately, crime has only flourished under this regime, and many who are in the police and military forces themselves participate in the crimes themselves. Did you hear about an Air France flight that got caught with tons of cocaine for which many soldiers of the National Guard were arrested for? Obviously none of them are the big fish who would've had the power and influence to carry out such an operation. And now the government is claiming to crack down on corruption within their own institutions, so they arrest a couple of mayors here and there from small cities, and maybe some low-ranking sergeants, to give the impression they're doing everything they can to eliminate the corruption but never the big guys who are obviously the ones behind the big businesses. You see many of the high-ranking government politicians like the Chávez family or Pedro Carreño or Diosdado Cabello or Rafael Ramírez, along with their families and colleagues, going around wearing extremely expensive attire and accessories, so expensive that you can only get it from other countries, as well as cruising around in their own yachts, which they obviously couldn't have afforded with their government salaries, and people still wonder who the most corrupt figures are.

[HooptieWagon]

5. The Venezuelans I've stayed in touch with...

...have all moved to the US. Their main motive was better financial opportunities, but all expressed concern about crime and violence, too.

[Flatulo]

6. A sinking ship certainly seems to bring out the worst in people, doesn't it?