Over the weekend Venezuela’s democratic institutions received a new show of international support after judicial authorities from across the Americas and Iberian Peninsula selected the socialist democracy to host the Ibero-American Institute of Higher Judicial Studies.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has named his five delegates who will make up the country’s new “State Counsel,” after announcing in February that he would create the body.
A Venezuelan judge has fled to the United States after he was dismissed as a Supreme Court Magistrate on March 20th, when an investigation was launched into his links to Venezuelan drug lord Walid Makled.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez approved 1.756 billion bolivars (US$409 million) in funds yesterday for the expansion of the country’s National Bolivarian Police (PNB) and the National Experimental University of Security (UNES), where the PNB receive their training.
The Venezuelan government has suspended gun imports and sales, initially for a period of one year. It is also encouraging citizens to register their guns.
A pilot plan encouraging inhabitants of the populous sectors of La Pastora, La Vega and Sucre in western Caracas to voluntarily hand over illegal firearms will begin in the coming weeks
In 2011 Venezuela’s Office of the Attorney General solved 1,015,767 cases and received 807,811 new cases, said Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz on Wednesday. “For the first time ever, the number of cases solved exceeded the cases received,” confirmed Ortega Díaz during a televised interview.
Venezuelan Minister of Prison Affairs, Iris Varela, announced that a program called “Llego La Chamba” (or Work Has Arrived, in Spanish) aimed at generating productive jobs for inmates in the country began Wednesday.
Officers of the Venezuelan National Anti-Drugs Office (ONA) arrested a prominent Colombian drug dealer, Nelson Orlando Buitrago Parada, aka "Caballo," on Saturday.
This past Monday Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that his government would make reforming the country’s penal code a priority in the upcoming year.
This past Tuesday, the Venezuelan National Assembly passed new legislation reforming the country’s laws on organised crime and terrorism. The legislation widens the number of crimes under its competence and also increases maximum sentences for offenses.
A United Nations (UN) official praised Venezuela’s gun control and disarmament efforts as the government proceeds with several policies aimed at countering violent crime and guaranteeing citizen security.
Reforms to humanise Venezuela’s prison system moved ahead this week with the launch of a program in which inmates work to restore and improve prison facilities, while prison affairs minister Iris Valera reported progress in tackling delays in the judicial processing of prisoners.
On Wednesday, Venezuelans were shocked at the news of Attorney General and revolutionary lawyer Carlos Escarra’s abrupt death after suffering a heart attack earlier that morning.
