Where War Deaths Are Worst

IBD ^ | January 4, 2008

[Kaslin]

Warfare: Quick, which nation shows average civilian deaths at 33 a day in the last third of 2007? Now name the one where civilian deaths average 19 a day? If you guessed Iraq and Venezuela, you'd have it backward.

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Shocking? Of course. But true. With even Venezuelan officials admitting their country clocked 12,249 murders in 2007, Hugo Chavez's socialist "sea of happiness" resembles a war zone. In December alone, Venezuela had 670 murders while Iraq had 476 — and that number is falling fast.

This is Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, the place wildly praised by Hollywood eminentos like Oliver Stone and Sean Penn, and its crime is so bad it tops that seen in actual warfare.

People like Stone and Penn frequently criticize the Iraq war effort and its progress toward peace. But not once have we seen any of them express outrage at the slaughter brought to the streets of Venezuela courtesy of Hugo Chavez, a supposed champion of the poor.

Some champion. On Jan. 1, around the same time Hollywood film director Oliver Stone was loudly praising Chavez's revolution in Caracas, 63 murders started off Venezuela's New Year; 35 died the same day in Iraq.

Stone probably knows this, because anyone who's ever been to Caracas knows all about the severity of the crime. Venezuela is the kind of place where families around the dinner table discuss kidnapping and make pacts to not pay ransom for fear of bankrupting the family.

Meanwhile, night travel is strongly discouraged and no one wears jewelry openly. Security guards pack big firepower to guard tiny businesses like bakeries, and bulletproof cars are common.

[tomnbeverly]

Sounds like something that the Radical Democrats want for America ... .I mean Chavez is their hero because he bashes Bush... maybe they all would like to go live in Venezuela...

[nmh]

BUMP!

[Dr. Frank fan]

Quick, which nation shows average civilian deaths at 33 a day in the last third of 2007? Now name the one where civilian deaths average 19 a day? If you guessed Iraq and Venezuela, you'd have it backward.

Something's wrong with these numbers; surely in neither of these countries do only 19-33 people ("civilians") die each day, surely the number is much higher. And in the U.S. as well.

Presumably they mean to be speaking of violent / war-related deaths only.

[wgflyer]

Reminds me of 1991 in Panama. Uzi toting guards patrolled MacDonald's restaurants. Shotgun toting guards patrolled the aisles of the supermarket. We were buzzed into a camera shop to buy film. All patrons of local discos went through metal detectors and ladies purses were searched. Occasional gunfire punctuated the night. A local steak restaurant wouldn’t let us in until we were sized up via a peephole. That place got robbed when they goofed and let thieves wearing tuxedos in, their guns unseen. The country was a mess.

By the way....our tolerance of illegal aliens is going to make the US just one more failed Latin American kleptocracy.

[KantianBurke]

Is the billions in profits from drugs fueling this violence? What is the cause of all this?

[VOA]

bump

[wideawake]

The US has about 16,000 homicides per year and a population of 300 million.

Venezuela has 12,250 homicides per year and a population of 27 million.

In other words, Venezuela has a murder rate approximately 8 times as high as the US.

Which means the country of Venezuela is about as safe as the city of Detroit.

[wideawake]

A good portion of the murders are murders of Chavez opponents by Chavez supporters, political murders made to look like criminal murders in muggings and home invasions.

Chavez is aware that systematic, judicial murder of opponents would draw notice.

[jack_napier]

When the law gives everyone equal share, the only way to improve your lot is to lie, cheat, and steal!

[NDNBill]

I had NO idea BUSH! had invaded Chavez’s land of peace and tranquility. Thanks for the update....