Monday afternoon, in Petare, popular district of Caracas, Venezuela. In the church of Sacre-Coeur de Jesus, before the 18-hour Mass, Father Erick Tovar reads a prayer for the deceased of the parish. Jose Antonio Rodriguez Alegria, 23, and his fiancee spend in front of the church when three unknown men on a motorcycle approached the couple: "It's him!", Launches one of them.José Antonio took refuge in the building, runs in the nave before being mortally wounded in the head a few meters before the altar. The blasts spread panic. The faithful, including several children, rush to the doors. The priest behind a table. The office will not occur. Monday night in the San Andres.
A young man of 19 years on, BlackBerry in hand. Two armed motorcyclists extort him, and shoot when he fled. Fearing retaliation, her mother hides her name to reporters, and her son: "I had offered him the BlackBerry two weeks ago. I must now buy his coffin. I do not want it to anyone." In Venezuela, mobile phones "smart" have become a preferred food of pickpockets.
More than two out of three of the BlackBerry. One million devices in circulation. One of the three operators has signed a contract with a manufacturer who can suspend the line of a stolen device. In little over a month, 70,000 phones have been "neutralized." Tuesday afternoon, two students, Gustavo Aldan, 20, and a friend of 17 years, post-lunch class in the district of Los Teques.
They head towards a taxi rank. Two killers motor slowing and, without uttering a word, unload their guns on them. According to their teachers, two students were killed by mistake. Wednesday, 2 am, Alejandro Rico, 22, received three bullets in the head in their sleep. The victim, a Colombian, had arrived in Caracas two years ago, from Medellin.
Without papers, he worked in a pizzeria. "He had no problem with anybody," said his sister, Ana, who, alerted by the shots, just had time to see several figures dressed in black. His family is considering leaving for Colombia. Thursday night, in the heart of Caracas chic, two blocks from the Miraflores presidential palace.
Two pedestrians, Renny Rodriguez Yance, 22, and Luis GabrielVergara Heredia, 18, were approached by two strangers who claim to be plainclothes policemen. They check their identity papers and then immediately shoot them down, one of fifteen balls, the other six, before returning to their car.
"A black vehicle," says a witness. Luis Gabriel's mother, Marisol, said, in tears, she has already lost a son, Jose Reinaldo, who was stabbed to death in the street by a vagrant eight months ago. He suffered a mild intellectual disability was due to fly the next day to Cuba to receive treatment.
Friday at dawn, a well known sculptor, Joel Gerardo Casique, 52, was murdered in his apartment of a residential area of downtown. His car and his laptop disappear. Saturday night, near Valencia, second largest city. A triple homicide saddens Colombia Street in the City of Los Guayos. A gang leader shoots ManuelNuñez Sangrona Frayer, 18, accidentally witness a murder occurred several hours earlier.
Frayer was accompanied by a young woman and her son, aged 18 months. They die by gunfire while trying in vain to protect children in their arms. Caracas, Sunday evening. The San Blas Petare is the scene of a massacre: 7 dead, 14 wounded. Fifteen members of two bands, usually rivals, burst into the middle of a cervecero, a small party with neighbors where the beer flows like water, and start shooting at anything that moves.
The shooting lasted twenty minutes. Is a settling of accounts coupled with a bloody show of force abusers to enforce their "territory". Ismael Herrera lost two son in the massacre: Argenis, 28, John, 26. "None of my nine children is a bandit. Everyone has a job. Argenis was the smartest.
I told my son to be careful. They had no enemies, but the bullets, they are blind. "He demands justice, without believing. In the aftermath of the carnage, several sponsors will walk in the neighborhood, without apparent fear of any retribution. L Impunity encourages criminals and desperate relatives of victims.
"This is the most serious problem," acknowledges the Commissioner Vicente Alamo. In 2009, 16,094 homicides were committed in Venezuela, 93% remain unpunished. Four times In 1998, before the arrival of "Commander" Hugo Chavez in power. Caracas is the capital's most violent in Latin America.
Lives shattered, families broken, a frightened population. Victims young and very poor in their majority. These few examples were gathered there, among many others, in the "miscellaneous" national dailies. Throughout the week before Christmas. One more week to "Socialism for the Twenty-First Century" that President Chavez promised Venezuelans.
Email: Langellier lemonde @. com. Jean-Pierre Langellier Article published in the edition of 06.01.11
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