By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Nov 26 2002 (IPS)

Some 80,000 civilians in Venezuela own firearms with an expired permit, thousands of others have unlicenced weapons, there are no reliable statistics on the number of guns in the hands of the police and private security companies, and 8,000 people a year are killed by firearms.

”The political crisis shaking the country, with the government and the opposition invoking the specter of a civil war, has brought this issue up for discussion, and there are growing demands for the disarmament” of society, Claudia Rodríguez, coordinator of the non-governmental Justice and Peace Support Network, told IPS.

In fact, the disarmament of the civilian population is one of the questions on the agenda of the negotiations between representatives of the government of Hugo Chávez and the opposition, which were recently re-started thanks to the efforts of an international delegation headed by Organisation of American States (OAS) Secretary-General César Gaviria.

But the issue has been pushed to the backburner by the pressure for early elections, to resolve the political turmoil, which has virtually split the country in half between Chávez foes and supporters, and by the creation of a Truth Commission to investigate the Apr 11-14 political disturbances that left a death toll of at least 80.

The opposition is most upset about the shooting deaths of 18 people on Apr 11, the third day of a general strike, during a massive anti-Chávez demonstration that led to a short-lived civic-military coup d’etat that removed Chávez from power for two days.

Videotaped images of government supporters opening fire, supposedly filmed that day, have been aired hundreds of times by anti-Chávez private TV stations and have become the opposition’s main argument in their demand that the ”Bolivarian Circles”, grassroots neighbourhood organisations that support the president, be disarmed.

But the government maintains that the Bolivarian Circles are peaceful social organisations.

It argues instead that firearms should be removed from the civilian population at large, and sponsored a new law to that end which put the task of disarmament in the hands of the armed forces’ Armament Office.

Gaviria said ”the disarmament of civilians is of capital importance” because this South American country of 23 million, ”now as never before, needs its armed forces and police to exercise a monopoly over the use of deadly force, which is today the essence of a democratic state.”

A study by the Armament Office indicates that some 60,000 people have not yet exchanged the expired firearms permits that the Interior Ministry issued in the past for the new ones now granted by the armed forces, said parliamentary Deputy Pedro Castillo.

Overall, the report estimates that at least 80,000 citizens still own firearms without the necessary licence, some 40,000 guns have been stolen from private security agencies, and there are around 600 arms-selling businesses in the country.

Sources consulted by IPS reported that 8,000 homicides a year are committed with firearms, and nearly 4,000 guns are confiscated every month.

The firepower of criminals is perhaps most clearly demonstrated by assaults of armoured vehicles carrying bank-notes – 20 in 2001 and 13 so far this year – each of which was carried out by bands of between six and 20 heavily armed people with machine guns, assault rifles and other weapons of war.

But there is also a large number of small and light arms in the hands of around 50,000 employees of private security companies, and there is no up-to-date count of the number of weapons used by municipal, state, transit, judicial and secret police.

”There is no information on how many or what kind of weapons the police have in the country’s 23 states or in the main cities,” said Rodríguez.

”A mantle of secrecy covers the purchases and assignation of weapons, which facilitates arms trafficking,” the activist added.

Police in the western oil-producing state of Zulia ”have, for example, 50 AR15 assault rifles, which are not only weapons of war but are used for private combat events,” Wayuu indigenous leader Daniel Pineda, with the Human Rights Defence Committee, told IPS.

”But more than the possession of weapons, what we are worried about is the use to which they are put. That is why we are calling for enforcement of the ban on using them against protest demonstrations,” he said.

”Asking the residents of violence-ridden slum neighbourhoods to hand in their weapons is illusory as long as the conditions of poverty, overcrowding and high crime rates do not change,” said Pineda.

Venezuela is one of the most violent countries in Latin America, with a homicide rate that is only lower than those of civil war-torn Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil and Mexico.

Rodríguez’s Justice and Peace Support Network would like to implement ”a programme through which communities in the shantytowns would agree to hand in their weapons in exchange for public works and services, instead of money, as has been done in other countries.”

She also pointed to a proposal by the Oscar D’León Foundation, founded by Venezuela’s leading salsa musician, to set up ”salsa conservatories” in every neighbourhood that agrees to hand in weapons.

The initiative has also awakened the interest of merengue musician Johnny Ventura, a former mayor of Santo Domingo, said Rodríguez.

However, until such initiatives, which have merely begun to be discussed in a debate sponsored by parliament, become reality, the problem remains of civilians who carry weapons in street demonstrations and train and organise themselves for the possibility that they will feel the need to use their guns in the political dispute.

In a raid this month on a rural estate 100 kms west of Caracas, police found 52 firearms, including 11 assault rifles, as well as 145,000 cartridges – a discovery that fanned the flames of the controversy surrounding the existence of paramilitary groups.

While the opposition insists that the Bolivarian Circles are armed, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello argues that ”illegal weapons are not only found in the slums, but in middle-class neighbourhoods as well.

”Any disarmament effort must involve the entire civilian population,” said Cabello.

Excerpt:

By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Nov 26 2002 (IPS)

Some 80,000 civilians in Venezuela own firearms with an expired permit, thousands of others have unlicenced weapons, there are no reliable statistics on the number of guns in the hands of the police and private security companies, and 8,000 people a year are killed by firearms.

“The political crisis shaking the country, with the government and the opposition invoking the specter of a civil war, has brought this issue up for discussion, and there are growing demands for the disarmament” of society, Claudia Rodríguez, coordinator of the non-governmental Justice and Peace Support Network, told IPS.

In fact, the disarmament of the civilian population is one of the questions on the agenda of the negotiations between representatives of the government of Hugo Chávez and the opposition, which were recently re-started thanks to the efforts of an international delegation headed by Organisation of American States (OAS) Secretary-General César Gaviria.

But the issue has been pushed to the backburner by the pressure for early elections, to resolve the political turmoil, which has virtually split the country in half between Chávez foes and supporters, and by the creation of a Truth Commission to investigate the Apr 11-14 political disturbances that left a death toll of at least 80.

The opposition is most upset about the shooting deaths of 18 people on Apr 11, the third day of a general strike, during a massive anti-Chávez demonstration that led to a short-lived civic-military coup d’etat that removed Chávez from power for two days.

Videotaped images of government supporters opening fire, supposedly filmed that day, have been aired hundreds of times by anti-Chávez private TV stations and have become the opposition’s main argument in their demand that the “Bolivarian Circles”, grassroots neighbourhood organisations that support the president, be disarmed.

But the government maintains that the Bolivarian Circles are peaceful social organisations.

It argues instead that firearms should be removed from the civilian population at large, and sponsored a new law to that end which put the task of disarmament in the hands of the armed forces’ Armament Office.

Gaviria said “the disarmament of civilians is of capital importance” because this South American country of 23 million, “now as never before, needs its armed forces and police to exercise a monopoly over the use of deadly force, which is today the essence of a democratic state.”

A study by the Armament Office indicates that some 60,000 people have not yet exchanged the expired firearms permits that the Interior Ministry issued in the past for the new ones now granted by the armed forces, said parliamentary Deputy Pedro Castillo.

Overall, the report estimates that at least 80,000 citizens still own firearms without the necessary licence, some 40,000 guns have been stolen from private security agencies, and there are around 600 arms-selling businesses in the country.

Sources consulted by IPS reported that 8,000 homicides a year are committed with firearms, and nearly 4,000 guns are confiscated every month.

The firepower of criminals is perhaps most clearly demonstrated by assaults of armoured vehicles carrying bank-notes — 20 in 2001 and 13 so far this year — each of which was carried out by bands of between six and 20 heavily armed people with machine guns, assault rifles and other weapons of war.

But there is also a large number of small and light arms in the hands of around 50,000 employees of private security companies, and there is no up-to-date count of the number of weapons used by municipal, state, transit, judicial and secret police.

“There is no information on how many or what kind of weapons the police have in the country’s 23 states or in the main cities,” said Rodríguez.

“A mantle of secrecy covers the purchases and assignation of weapons, which facilitates arms trafficking,” the activist added.

Police in the western oil-producing state of Zulia “have, for example, 50 AR15 assault rifles, which are not only weapons of war but are used for private combat events,” Wayuu indigenous leader Daniel Pineda, with the Human Rights Defence Committee, told IPS.

“But more than the possession of weapons, what we are worried about is the use to which they are put. That is why we are calling for enforcement of the ban on using them against protest demonstrations,” he said.

“Asking the residents of violence-ridden slum neighbourhoods to hand in their weapons is illusory as long as the conditions of poverty, overcrowding and high crime rates do not change,” said Pineda.

Venezuela is one of the most violent countries in Latin America, with a homicide rate that is only lower than those of civil war-torn Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil and Mexico.

Rodríguez’s Justice and Peace Support Network would like to implement “a programme through which communities in the shantytowns would agree to hand in their weapons in exchange for public works and services, instead of money, as has been done in other countries.”

She also pointed to a proposal by the Oscar D’León Foundation, founded by Venezuela’s leading salsa musician, to set up “salsa conservatories” in every neighbourhood that agrees to hand in weapons.

The initiative has also awakened the interest of merengue musician Johnny Ventura, a former mayor of Santo Domingo, said Rodríguez.

However, until such initiatives, which have merely begun to be discussed in a debate sponsored by parliament, become reality, the problem remains of civilians who carry weapons in street demonstrations and train and organise themselves for the possibility that they will feel the need to use their guns in the political dispute.

In a raid this month on a rural estate 100 kms west of Caracas, police found 52 firearms, including 11 assault rifles, as well as 145,000 cartridges — a discovery that fanned the flames of the controversy surrounding the existence of paramilitary groups.

While the opposition insists that the Bolivarian Circles are armed, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello argues that “illegal weapons are not only found in the slums, but in middle-class neighbourhoods as well.

“Any disarmament effort must involve the entire civilian population,” said Cabello.

Excerpt: