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.
Thousands of Venezuelans gathered outside the country's National Assembly (AN) on Saturday to hear President Chavez give his annual speech to the nation. Each year the Venezuelan president is obliged to give an "annual report" to the legislative body accounting for the management of his government and detailing its setbacks and achievements throughout the past year.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has condemned the United States’ decision to expel the Venezuelan consul general in Miami as “arbitrary and unjustified” this past Monday, and derided the move as “another demonstration of the arrogance of ridiculous imperialism”.
