A person was killed every 30 minutes in Venezuela in 2011

There were 18,850 homicides in Venezuela in 2011, according to sources of the Scientific, Criminal and Forensic Investigation Agency (Cicpc). This means that a person was killed every thirty minutes.

If a murderer were involved in each case , 18.850 gunmen have put 29 million Venezuelans against the wall. If they had used a single bullet for every murder, the criminals would have spent a little more than 18 and a half boxes of bullets, with each box containing 1,000 bullets. And therefore, they would have spent some VEB 226,080 (USD 52,576, at the official exchange rate of VEB 4.30 per US dolar), as each box costs approximately VEB 12,000 (USD 2,790.7). Consequently, each bullet taking one person's life cost USD 2.70.

From the first hour of January 1, 2011 the tears of the relatives of people killed by criminals began to fall in Venezuela. At 12:15 am a bullet killed a 4 year-old girl in the poor neighborhood of El Amparo, in Catia (Caracas). She was in the arms of her grandmother for the first hug of the New Year. The girl collapsed and the blouse of the lady was soon covered in blood. The bullet lodged in the girl's brain.

According to Venezuela's police, a person was shot every half hour in any part of the country. This figure released by the Scientific, Criminal and Forensic Investigation Agency (Cicpc) includes the deaths that were considered in the Cicpc's bureau of statistics as deaths for resisting arrest.

"We have a government and authorities that do not meet the basic duties of any State," said sociologist Roberto Briceño León, who is the coordinator of NGO Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia (Venezuelan Violence Watch). He added that the major concern of any State is people's security, above health and education.

According to the Venezuelan NGO, in 2011 there were between 18,000 and 19,000 homicides in Venezuela. "In the eighties, there were eight homicides per year per 100,000 inhabitants," said Briceño León. Today, the rate is at least 65 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

With reporting by Frank López Ballesteros

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas