In the aftermath of the brutal murder of Venezuelan lawmaker Robert Sierra and his wife Maria Herrera, Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro said in a speech on October 27 that he will purge and revolutionize the countrys police forces. This comes in response to not only the murder of Sierra, but also to the murder of militia leader Jos Odreman a week later, and to the general failure of law enforcement to address soaring crime rates in the country.
Venezuela has the second highest murder per capita rate in the world behind Honduras. A 2013 Gallup poll ranked Venezuela as the most insecure nation in the world, a sentiment shared by many of its citizens: 2014 Gallup polls showed that only 19 percent of Venezuelans felt safe to walk alone at night.
Maduro dismissed the notion that the recent murder of Robert Sierra resulted from a botched burglary, and rather insisted that it was a premeditated political assassination. He suspects that the vicious crime was facilitated through help of some within the police force itself.
Whether Maduros allegations are true is somewhat beside the point. The president is entirely correct in his prognosis, that the problem of Venezuelan crime is a radical one, requiring a drastic response. However, if Maduros support for the socialist Bolivarian Revolution is any indication, his efforts will do little to quell the violence plaguing the country.
The real culprit for the rampant crime in Venezuela is socialism.
A recent Forbes article detailed the ways in which the Venezuelan economy is on the brink. What the article didnt mention is that Venezuela ranks 175th in the world on economic freedom, the lowest in South America behind only Cuba. Thus economic instability is to be expected and its no secret that harsh economic conditions encourage more criminal behavior.
But this isnt the only way in which socialism is causing crime throughout the country. Usually terms like capitalism and socialism are applied to whole nations in a political context, but in an economic relation, this can apply to specific industries too. A nation becomes socialist when it abolishes private property in favor of state (public) property, so concomitantly an industry becomes socialist when private competition is abolished and the state takes over.
The provision of police services in Venezuela is of course socialist, leading to all of the expected inefficiencies and poor service that are endemic to socialist institutions. The policing function is disconnected from the price system being funded through compulsory taxation rather than voluntary trade meaning there is no feedback mechanism to assist in crime prevention. Part of Maduros plan is to give the army a greater role in local police functions and he has therefore announced a 45 percent raise for army personnel. But without market generated feedback, he has no way to gauge how profitable (or unprofitable) this move will be.
Furthermore, absent competition, the incentives of police officers and administrators is greatly diminished, aside from the occasional good will that some of them may possess. Even still, to the extent that some are motivated by the desire to uphold their oaths and to serve and protect the citizenry, surely there are just as many who, given their privileged position, seek to exploit their power through extortion, deals with drug cartels, or even political assassinations.
Human Rights Watch claims that the police commit one of every five crimes in Venezuela. But the corruption isnt simply limited to the local level, as the regime crimes of former President Hugo Chavez have been well documented. Given that Maduro was Chavezs hand-picked successor, surely nothing has changed.
Originally posted here:
Socialism and Other Crimes in Venezuela