Rojo Rojito :: Violence in Venezuela (49 images)

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  • Cinder block homes in Petare, a large and violent slum on the outskirts of Caracas. Four-fifths of murders in Venezuela take place in the slums.

  • Menino sprays champagne at midnight on New Year's Eve.

  • Marco, a heroin addict and street dealer, adds heroin to a marijuana cigarette rolled in paper torn from a bread sack. After completing weeks of blood tests and consultations with psychiatrists for acceptance into a government subsidized drug rehabilitation program, he had even packed his luggage for the six month inpatient program before he changed his mind and decided to stay in his barrio. Marco says he is quitting hard drugs and will only continue to use marijuana and consume alcohol.

  • A woman passes by a police operation in Petare, one of the most violent slums in Venezuela.

  • A special tactical division of the Sucre police force conducts a late night foot patrol in Petare. 91 percent of crimes go unsolved in Venezuela.

  • Yati gets angry during the burial of his cousin, shouting, "Enough! Enough already!" as other family members attempted to delay the lowering of his casket into their family tomb. Maximo was fatally shot outside of Yati's home in a red zone sector of Venezuela. Yati and Maximo grew up together, and regularly referred to each other as brothers, instead of cousins. "No one knew Maximo [middle name, last names] like I did, no one can miss Maximo [middle name, last names] like I do," Yati said through tears. "He was my best friend, my brother."

  • Street scene at night in Petare, one of the most violent areas of Venezuela, reporting over a dozen homicides every weekend.

  • Members of a special tactical division of the Sucre police force are briefed before conducting a late night foot patrol mission in Petare. Over 90 percent of violent crimes in Venezuela go unsolved.

  • Jose, 33, has spent the majority of his adult life involved in the drug trade in Venezuela. "I want to change," he says, "I don't want to have any more enemies."

  • Alejandra Penaloza covers the eyes of her daughter, Samantha, while watching a murder scene on tv.

  • Nurses restrain a mother from entering the operating room with her son who was shot multiple times in the chest.

  • A gun shot victim is brought into the poorly funded and ill equipped Perez Leon hospital emergency room in the Petare slum. The ER, which lacks even the most basic supplies like gauze and IV fluid, receives dozens of gunshot patients every weekend. Trauma surgeon, Dr. Carlos Novel said it feels like he is working in a war zone.

  • Nurses at Perez Leon hospital in Petare. Their ER receives dozens of gun shot patients every weekend.

  • Hector, 24, writhes in pain as doctors repair an artery in his arm on July 31, 2010. Men robbed him and cut him with a machete outside his home in Petare. Violent crime rates spike dramatically on payday, the 15th and last day of the month, when people have money and tend to consume more drugs and alcohol, police and emergency room doctors said.

  • Members of the "SDN" graffiti gang hang out sketching and smoking cigarettes in Del Valle, a slum on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela.

  • A member of the special tactical division of the Sucre police force conducts a late night patrol in the Petare slum. 91 percent of crimes go unsolved in Venezuela.

  • An exotic dancer applies sparkle eyeshadow make-up before her performance. She is paid approximately $10 USD per night.

  • Street scene in Belen, a red-zone sector in Venezuela heavily controlled by Colombian narco-traffickers.

  • Street scene at night in Petare, one of the most violent areas of Venezuela, reporting over a dozen homicides every weekend.

  • Members of a special tactical division of the Sucre police force conduct a late night foot patrol in Petare. The Petare slum is one of the most violent areas of Caracas, Venezuela, reporting over a dozen homicides every weekend. According to the ngo, the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), Caracas has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world, with two people murdered every hour, a homicide rate that has quadrupled over the eleven year presidency of Hugo Chavez. Equally disturbing is the level of impunity, corruption and incompetency in the Venezuelan judicial system. OVV reports that 91% of crimes go unsolved in Venezuela.

  • Carlos Marrero, 22, a member of "SDN" graffiti crew, pauses to pose for a portrait while tagging a wall in Del Valle, a slum on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela.

  • Alejandra performs as an exotic dancer in a local discotec. She has worked as a dancer for over five years and is considered to have one of the best routines, usually saved for the end of the night.

  • Young men protest the murder of their friend, Vladimir Rubio, who was fatally shot in Catia, a large slum in Caracas, Venezuela by riding in a procession of over 300 motorcycles through the city at high speed, weaving in between cars, revving their engines and purposely trying to cause mayhem, disorder, and generally disrupt the flow of traffic. Lack of trust in the judicial system causes them to seek their own street justice, continuing the cycle of violence.

  • Members of a special tactical division of the Sucre police force conduct a late night foot patrol in Petare. The Petare slum is one of the most violent areas of Caracas, Venezuela, reporting over a dozen homicides every weekend. According to the ngo, the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), Caracas has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world, with two people murdered every hour, a homicide rate that has quadrupled over the eleven year presidency of Hugo Chavez. Equally disturbing is the level of impunity, corruption and incompetency in the Venezuelan judicial system. OVV reports that 91% of crimes go unsolved in Venezuela.

  • A woman passes a mural of Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, in Catia, a large slum in Caracas, Venezuela. Homicide rates have quadrupled since Chavez began his presidency in 1999. His critics blame the crime on a corrupt judicial system. Over 90 percent of violent crimes go unsolved in Venezuela.

  • A family watches the street from their home in Catia, a large slum in Caracas. Two people are murdered every hour in Venezuela.

  • Teenagers play basketball in Buenos Aires, a slum in Caracas, Venezuela. Local newspapers report that dozens of young men are murdered every weekend in Caracas.

  • A doctor stitches a stab wound in William Sanjuanelo's chest at an ER in Petare. The ER receives dozens of stab wounds every weekend.

  • After being stabilized from a stab wound, William Sanjuanelo, 32, waits with a neighbor to be moved from the emergency room at Perez Leon Hospital in Petare. The Petare slum is one of the most violent areas of Caracas, Venezuela, reporting over a dozen homicides every weekend. According to the ngo, the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), Caracas has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world, with two people murdered every hour, a homicide rate that has quadrupled over the eleven year presidency of Hugo Chavez. Equally disturbing is the level of impunity, corruption and incompetency in the Venezuelan judicial system. OVV reports that 91% of crimes go unsolved in Venezuela.

  • Dr. Gustavo Villamil (left) and Dr. Carlos Novel (right) examine a patient's x-ray in the Perez Leon hospital emergency room in Petare. The Petare slum is one of the most violent areas of Caracas, Venezuela, reporting over a dozen homicides every weekend. According to the ngo, the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), Caracas has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world, with two people murdered every hour, a homicide rate that has quadrupled over the eleven year presidency of Hugo Chavez. Equally disturbing is the level of impunity, corruption and incompetency in the Venezuelan judicial system. OVV reports that 91% of crimes go unsolved in Venezuela.

  • A woman cries and clasps the blood-stained blue jeans of her son while doctors work to stabilize him from four gun shot wounds to the chest at the trauma center at Perez Leon Hospital in the Petare slum in Caracas, Venezuela.

  • Doctors at the Perez Leon emergency room were unable to save the life of this unidentified man who was shot multiple times in the chest in Petare, a large slum in Caracas, Venezuela.

  • Alejandra (center) cries with her sister-in-laws, Sabrina (left) and Yomara (right) during the funeral procession for her cousin, Maximo, who was fatally shot only a few feet from the front door of Alejandra's home in Belen, a red-zone sector and notorious narco-trafficking checkpoint heavily controlled by Colombian paramilitaries. Sabrina, as well as several of Alejandra's cousins, work together as exotic dancers in the same discotec. Their boss allowed them to take several days off from work when Maximo was murdered. He was the fourth person close to the girls shot during the month of April.

  • A cousin mourns the death of Maximo during his burial procession through the streets of Belen. Maximo was fatally shot outside of his family home in Belen on April 24, 2008.

  • Maximo, 34, rests in his room adorned with side-by-side posters of Che Guevara and Hugo Chavez . He was murdered three months after this photo was taken. Maximo was the only adult male responsible for providing for the sixteen women and children that live in his family home located in a red zone heavily controlled by Colombian narco traffickers in Venezuela. He proudly identified himself as a member of the Bolivarian Revolution, sympathetic to the though of legendary Latin American revolutionary, Che Guevara and present day President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. The police never arrested the man that shot him.

  • Family and friends pay homage to a young man murdered in the La Pastora slum in Caracas, Venezuela by resting his casket on motorcycles at the cemetery before his burial.

  • A family's religious shrine to murdered friends and family members, adorned with holy water, candles, and 'recuerdos' wallet-sized photos of the deceased accompanied by religious graphics and Catholic prayers, popular among families after they have lost someone. The six 'recuerdos' pictured in this image were all made for young men close to the family that were murdered in the past six months. The majority of men featured in this project keep upwards of a dozen 'recuerdos' of their fallen friends in their wallets. Some have had over 20 friends fatally shot within the past 2-3 years. The owner of this shrine, placed by his doorway, habitually kisses his finger and touches each photo before leaving his house, and asks his friends to protect him while he is in the street.

  • Catholic priest, Father Hector Marquez, 35, prays inside his church in the Buenos Aires slum in Caracas, Venezuela. Despite being stabbed last year by one of the slum's residents, Marquez is working to unite the residents of Buenos Aires through community councils and projects aimed toward making the slum a safer place to live.

  • Venezuelans plead for government hand-outs in a slum. The murder rate has quadrupled since Hugo Chavez came into power in 1999.

  • A man passes an anti-American mural in El Junquito, a slum on the outskirts of Caracas.

  • Neighbors and family members return to their homes in the Petare slum after attending the funeral of Yanil Alexander Cemeño Figuera in Caracas, Venezuela. Cemeño was fatally shot in the street outside of their homes, and was his mother's fourth son to be murdered. His brother (second from left) shrugged after being asked how he felt about being his mother's only surving son. "I guess I am next," he said. The Petare slum is one of the most violent areas of Caracas, Venezuela, reporting over a dozen homicides every weekend. According to the ngo, the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), Caracas has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world, with two people murdered every hour, a homicide rate that has quadrupled over the eleven year presidency of Hugo Chavez. Equally disturbing is the level of impunity, corruption and incompetency in the Venezuelan judicial system. OVV reports that 91% of crimes go unsolved in Venezuela.

  • A man shot in the forehead waits for an x-ray at Perez Leon hospital emergency room in Petare. The Petare slum is one of the most violent areas of Caracas, Venezuela, reporting over a dozen homicides every weekend. According to the ngo, the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), Caracas has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world, with two people murdered every hour, a homicide rate that has quadrupled over the eleven year presidency of Hugo Chavez. Equally disturbing is the level of impunity, corruption and incompetency in the Venezuelan judicial system. OVV reports that 91% of crimes go unsolved in Venezuela.

  • A detail of the Perez Leon hospital emergency room's floor in Petare. The Petare slum is one of the most violent areas of Caracas, Venezuela, reporting over a dozen homicides every weekend. According to the ngo, the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), Caracas has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world, with two people murdered every hour, a homicide rate that has quadrupled over the eleven year presidency of Hugo Chavez. Equally disturbing is the level of impunity, corruption and incompetency in the Venezuelan judicial system. OVV reports that 91% of crimes go unsolved in Venezuela.

  • Family and friends mourn the death of Maximo during his burial in Venezuela. Maximo was fatally shot outside of his family home on April 24, 2008. Mourners adorned his casket with roses, notes, and provisions they believed he would like to have for his journey into the heavens. Several people left chocolates, cigarettes and alcohol. Through tears, his male cousins and closest friends poured bottles of Venezuelan rum over his casket as their way of honoring him in their last moments with his body.

  • Relatives mourned Yanil Cemeno during his funeral. He was his mother's fourth son to be murdered in the slums of Caracas, Venezuela.

  • A special tactical division of the Sucre police force conducts a late night foot patrol in Petare. 91% of crimes go unsolved in Venezuela.

  • Maritza's son Maximo was fatally shot on April 24, 2008. Two months after his death she is still severely depressed and says she cries everyday. The day Maximo was murdered, Martiza begged him not to leave the house, she had a bad gut feeling and told him that the streets were too dangerous that day. He laughed at her nagging, hopped on his motorcycle, blew her a kiss and said, "Don't worry mama, I'll be back in five minutes."

  • Political graffiti of President Hugo Chavez on a wall in Petare. The Petare slum is one of the most violent areas of Caracas, Venezuela, reporting over a dozen homicides every weekend. According to the ngo, the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), Caracas has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world, with two people murdered every hour, a homicide rate that has quadrupled over the eleven year presidency of Hugo Chavez. Equally disturbing is the level of impunity, corruption and incompetency in the Venezuelan judicial system. OVV reports that 91% of crimes go unsolved in Venezuela.

  • Two people are murdered every hour in Venezuela, where over 90 percent of violent crimes go unsolved. Residents say they feel like they live in a war zone.

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