Many people are victimized by crime because of fear and the perceived inability of Venezuela's criminal justice system to prevent crime. . [39], In 2009, it was reported that Venezuelan authorities would assign judicial police to Caracas area morgues to speak with families. The country has one of the top five highest per capita murder rates in the world. He also explained that prison are controlled by gangs and that "very little has been done" to control them. Fauna crime is spurred by demand from the US, China and Europe. While reported incidents of murder in Venezuela decreased slightly to almost 14,000, the number of reported murders in the State of Miranda (which encompasses the greater Caracas area) increased. Show publisher information Venezuela: homicide rate 2020, by city. InSight Crime. Saint Kitts and Nevis - 36.09. Venezuelan law enforcement entities continue to look for creative policing strategies to overcome these obstacles, such as community policing base stations, motorcycle and bicycle patrols, augmenting traditional foot and vehicle policing. Then you can access your favorite statistics via the star in the header. From 2019 to 2020, the population change was -0.28%. }, Page last modified: Congresswoman Delsa Solorzano -- also the vice president of opposition party Un . In one incident involving a crashed truck, hundreds of men, women and children looted the vehicle. A decades-old problem in Venezuela, armed robberies, kidnappings and murders climbed during the 1999-2013 rule of . Currently, you are using a shared account. Venezuela crisis in brief. In 2013, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published the homicide report, and Venezuela was positioned as the second highest homicide rate in the world with a 1. According to United Nations, the homicides rate in Venezuela was 53.7 murders per 100,000 persons in 2012; that's higher than figures for many other Latin American countries, including Colombia . An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice. Corrupt Venezuelan police officers may be involved in some 20 percent of the "deaths from resisting authority" that the government tries to keep out of the official tally. . [63], In September 2013, an incident involving men from the Venezuelan National Guard placing 31 suitcases containing 1.3 tons of cocaine on a Paris flight astonished French authorities. [80] Despite the Venezuelan government's statements saying that only official authorities can carry weapons for the defense of Venezuela, colectivos are armed with automatic rifles such as AK-47s, submachine guns, fragmentation grenades, and tear gas. [27][28] Recently, the murder rate in Venezuela is the subject of some dispute according to the Associated Press, since Bolivarian government slowly denied access to homicide statistics. UNICEF reported that 6.9 million students in Venezuela missed almost all classroom instruction between March 2020 and February 2021. Much like Valencia, Maracaibo offers a big city feel but has a bit of a higher crime rate. [48] In 2013, consulting firm Control Risk ranked Venezuela 5th in the world for kidnappings, only behind Mexico, India, Nigeria and Pakistan. HOMICIDES / 2 APR 2015 BY VENEZUELA INVESTIGATIVE UNIT EN. #ga-ad {display: none;} Kidnappings, whether traditional, express or virtual, are a growing industry in Venezuela. The penal reform also included provisions for the prosecution of any police officer found to have made an arrest "without cause." The facility had been overcrowded by more than three times its designed capacity.[147]. [7][8][9][10] By 2015, crime, which was often the topic Venezuelans worried about the most according to polls, was the second largest concern compared to shortages in Venezuela. [96] Videos circulated on social media showing colectivos threatening protesters and shooting in the streets;[97] two protestors were shot. This was part of Chavez's efforts to show his concern for the poor and downtrodden of Venezuelan society. People avoid being out @media only screen and (min-device-width : 320px) and (max-device-width : 480px) { Don't go expecting justice if you are a victim of crime - only a very small percentage of crimes result in trials and convictions. The goal of Plan Patria Segura to disarm, prevent organized crime and drug enforcement. You only have access to basic statistics. Well armed criminal gangs operate with impunity, often setting up fake police checkpoints. [51] At least 80% of kidnappings occur in a limited area around Caracas and including Miranda State. [27], In 2010, The New York Times stated that according to news reports, data from human rights groups, such as the OVV's statistics, may actually be undercounting the number of those murdered in Venezuela. Caracas continues to have one of the highest incidents of murder in the world. [28][31] PROVEA figures provided in the UN's 2014 Global Homicide Book put Venezuela's homicide rate at 53.7 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2012, closer to the Venezuelan government's 2012 estimate,[29] but still the second highest peacetime murder rate in the world after Honduras (estimated at 90.4). [122][123][124], Days after the replacement of the plan's creator Miguel Rodrguez Torres by Carmen Melndez as Minister of the Popular Power for Interior, Justice and Peace,[125] Melendez announced that the Venezuelan government would relaunch Plan Patria Segura for a second time. . Following this year, the population is expected to start growing again for the next few decades. [81] Some weapons given to the groups include assault rifles, submachine guns and grenades. Please do not hesitate to contact me. The crime rate in the United State is 47.77 which is more than 55 countries. Get full access to all features within our Business Solutions. Venezuelan authorities claimed the incident was an escape attempt by inmates, while the Venezuelan Prison Observatory noted the inmates were angry over insufficient food and water and called for an investigation. The criticism follows attacks last year by Maduro on violent video games and the Hollywood movie "Spider-man." They occur when criminals force their victims to extract cash from ATM machines or to make purchases with the victims credit cards until the card is shut off. [130], The majority of Venezuelans surveyed in the Rule of Law Index 2015 believed the judicial system was corrupt with 98% believing the correctional system was ineffective while 100% thought the government had improper influence in the criminal justice system. [5] This introduced to the Venezuelan population the notion of not following the societal rules and using violence to achieve goals, such as widespread looting during the Caracazo or by attempting to commit undemocratic coups such as in 1992. [133] According to the Venezuelan Observatory of Prisons (OVP), from 1999 to 2015, there were 22,998 violent incidents, with 16,417 injured and 6,581 inmates killed. Only a very small percentage of criminals are tried and convicted. Police support, both from the national and municipal levels, varies. These data are based on perceptions of visitors of this website in the past 3 years. The BBC seriously repeats the Venezuelan government's claim that the ban is Armed robberies take place in broad daylight throughout the city, including areas generally presumed safe and frequented by tourists. There is no evidence to indicate criminals and gang-related activities specifically target U.S. citizens. In 1990, 31,861 violent crimes, 184,126 property crimes, and 6,405 drug crimes were reported. Statista. Venezuela. [63] Venezuelan officials have also been allegedly working with Mexican drug cartels. [50], There is no reliable data on kidnapping in Venezuela and available data is considered an underestimate. Venezuela is a source for flora and fauna crimes, including illegally extracted timber and Cucurito palm, facilitated by the lack of investigations, inventories, or government presence in national parks. For adolescents from 10 to 19 years of age, the homicide rate is 39 per 100,000 people; for males between of those ages, the rate is 74 per 100,000, while it's just 3 per 100,000 for females in . [1], While Venezuelans were suffering from shortages in Venezuela, the occasional looting of trucks full of goods became more common in the country with the robberies being committed by criminal gangs. Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are active in Venezuela. . Intentional homicides are estimates of unlawful homicides purposely inflicted as a result of domestic disputes, interpersonal violence, violent conflicts over land resources, intergang violence over turf or control, and predatory violence and killing by armed groups. In, InSight Crime. [121] Some have criticized Plan Patria Segura calling it a failure after crime continued to increase following its implementation. Three in every four Venezuelans live in extreme poverty , a study has said, as a years-long severe economic crisis in the oil-rich nation continues.According to the report, the National Survey of Living Conditions (Encovi . [50] Criminals will cut off access to family members and then report to the family that they have been kidnapped, demanding a ransom without actually imprisoning an individual. According to a victimization survey conducted by Venezuela's National Institute of Statistics, in the year leading up to July 2009, 46 kidnappings took place every day in Venezuela, a much . A lock ( The report stated that 33% of kidnappings occurred in the capital city of Caracas and that hundreds of kidnappings happen every year. VENEZUELA. In 1990, 31,861 violent crimes, 184,126 property crimes, and 6,405 drug crimes were reported. Sentences are determined by trial judges, and possible penalties include fines, restitution, probation, and incarceration. In the mid-1970s Lesotho witnessed a murder rate of 141 per 100,000, while more recently Columbia's murder rate was variously estimate at between 63 and 84 per 100,000. Crime rates in Venezuela. The judicial system is composed of the Supreme Court, superior courts, trial courts, and special courts. No one else has these. Use of internet and mobile phones are also a commonplace where criminals can take part in street crime while in prison. [114][115], During the presidency of the Hugo Chvez, more than 20 programs were created attempting to deter crime, though insecurity continued to increase following their implementation. Many people are victimized by crime because of fear and the perceived inability of Venezuela's criminal justice system to prevent crime. Qatar has the lowest crime rate in the world, followed by the UAE, according to Numbeo statistics. All of this is done while driving the victim around the city for several hours. For Crime Statistics, please contact Lance Eber at (209) 385-4701. Bruni provided the example of the Tocorn prison that in 2013 was holding 7,000 prisoners despite having been designed for 750. Its murder rate is 41.2 homicides per 100,000 people, the fifth-highest in the world. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. By the end of last year, prices were doubling . LockA locked padlock [95] As blackouts continued, on 31 March, citizens protested the lack of electricity and water in Caracas and other cities; Maduro called again on the colectivos, asking them "to defend the peace of every barrio, of every block". . * The figure refers to the violent death rate, which includes violent deaths in which the cause of death is unknown, as well as deadly confrontations involving security forces. [18] In 2000, the homicide rate for young men was 225 per 100,000. Within the United States, crime rates vary between different states. [118], In 2008, the National Assembly passed the Law Against Kidnapping and Extortion (Ley contra el Secuestro y la Extorsin), a law that imposes penalties of up to 30 years in prison to address a kidnapping situation that was not covered by a specific law. In the year 2000, the rate was only 58 per 100,000 people. . (If the rate were calculated on the basis of the number of females in the national population it would of course be approximately double the figure in the final column). The government each year lumps several thousands of deaths into these categories to lower the official homicide rate. The discovery of oil worsened political corruption,[98] and by the late 1970s, Juan Pablo Prez Alfonso's description of oil as "the Devil's excrement" became a common expression in Venezuela. When you have a functioning democracy and you have the opposition and the government in power, there's different solutions to problems; people debate, people discuss. Instead, pranes run criminal organizations outside of prisons and receive security within their facilities. If you are an admin, please authenticate by logging in again. Let's get into it. Sentences frequently were light, and convictions often were overturned on appeal. Venezuela crime rate & statistics for 2015 was 52.04, a 17.85% decline from 2014. [41][46][47] According to the leaked INE report, only 1,332 investigations for kidnappings were opened or about 7% of the total kidnapping cases, with 90% of the kidnappings happening away from rural areas, 80% of all being express kidnappings and the most common victim being lower-middle or middle class Venezuelans and middle-aged men. Venezuela Crime Rate & Statistics 1990-2023, Venezuela crime rate & statistics for 2017 was, Venezuela crime rate & statistics for 2016 was, Venezuela crime rate & statistics for 2015 was, Venezuela crime rate & statistics for 2014 was. In 2015, 17,778 people were murdered in Venezuela; however, the VOV revealed that those numbers were as high as 27,875. Data prior to 2022 were retrieved from previous releases of the publication. lack of economic opportunities, steep inflation, a high crime rate, and corruption. They explained that "Weak security, deteriorating infrastructure, overcrowding, insufficient and poorly trained guards, and corruption allow armed gangs to effectively control prisons". [40], Director James Brabazon stated that "kidnapping crimes had skyrocketed after late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez freed thousands of violent prisoners as part of controversial criminal justice system reforms" while also increasing due to Colombian organized crime as well. Reports of armed robberies continue to occur regularly, day or night, in the affluent Caracas residential sections of Chacao, Baruta and El Hatillo. [51][52] While it is against the law to pay a ransom, according to criminologists, at least 80% of kidnappings are not reported for fear of retaliation,[53] or because relatives prefer to negotiate, hoping the hostage will be released and fearing they will be killed if authorities are contacted. Victims do not have a role in sentencing unless they initiate the prosecution. Se espera su declaracin pblica en EE UU", "Detienen a comandante de la Milicia con cargamento de drogas", "Venezuela Military Officials Piloted Drug Plane", "La Casa Militar de Maduro custodi el traslado de droga de sus sobrinos", "Venezuelan first lady's nephews convicted in U.S. drug trial", "EEUU: postergaron una vez ms la audiencia de los narcosobrinos de Maduro | Nicols Maduro, Narcotrfico en Venezuela, Nueva York - Amrica", "Restan das para el juicio de los "narcosobrinos", "Difieren audiencia del caso de los "narcosobrinos" de Cilia", "La mujer de Maduro acusa a la DEA de secuestrar a sus "narcosobrinos", "Nicols Maduro, seis das de silencio en torno al escndalo de los 'narcosobrinos', "US Blacklists Thailand, Malaysia Over Trafficking", "The United States blacklists Venezuela in human trafficking", "10 claves para entender las Zonas de Paz", "As operan los 'colectivos', las fuerzas paramilitares chavistas de Venezuela", "The devolution of state power: The 'Colectivos', "Venezuela's Leftist Collectives: Criminals or Revolutionaries? [86][87] Amnesty International calls them "armed pro-government supporters who are tolerated or supported by the authorities". Between 1998-2006, there were 90.027 of murders in Venezuela. In 2019, the murder rate declined significantly to 60.3. According to a study by the opposition-controlled National Assembly, the annual inflation rate reached 1,300,000% in the 12 months to November 2018. Before President Hugo Chavez came to power, Venezuela had a homicide rate similar to that of Brazil and Mexico, of between 18 and 20 victims per 100,000 inhabitants. [5] According to Gareth A. Jones and Dennis Rodgers in their book Youth violence in Latin America: Gangs and Juvenile Justice in Perspective, "With the change of political regime in 1999 and the initiation of the Bolivarian Revolution, a period of transformation and political conflict began, marked by a further increase in the number and rate of violent deaths" showing that in four years, the murder rate had increased from 25 per 100,000 in 1999 to 44 per 100,000 in 2003. Venezuela's current population growth rate is in negatives, mostly due to negative net migration. In 2020, the capital city Caracas ranked third in the ranking of most violent Venezuelan metropolises, with a . Police officers : Number of police officers per 100,000 population. [143], However a year later, one "Coliseum" in Uribana left 2 dead and 128 injured. Many unaffiliated criminals are also increasingly involved in kidnappings, either dealing with victim's families directly or selling the victim to terrorist groups. Venezuela crime rate & statistics for 2016 was 58.31, a 12.06% increase from 2015. The staggering crime figures released by the Venezuelan government do not do justice to the actual number of murders committed in the country, because the government's figures do not include "deaths of unknown cause" nor "deaths from resisting authority." In 2009, there were record levels of murders (nearly 1,500), robberies (3,000), and kidnappings (99) reported to the Police in Miranda. [citation needed] The United States State Department and the Government of Canada have warned foreign visitors that they may be subjected to armed robbery, kidnapping and murder. If you use our chart images on your site or blog, we ask that you provide attribution via a link back to this page. In the last 25 years, the rate of violent crime in the US has fallen dramatically. Maracaibo. Business Solutions including all features. [19] The Chvez government banned private gun ownership in 2012[20][21] but overall crime rate has kept increasing since. Murder rate: Homicide rate per year per 100,000 inhabitants in various countries. Most robbery victims who have resisted criminal demands have usually been seriously injured as a result of their noncompliance. Many Venezuelans abroad . [132], Carlos Nieto, head of Window to Freedom, alleges that heads of gangs acquire military weapons from the state saying, They have the types of weapons that can only be obtained by the country's armed forces. [29] In 2015, the OVV's murder rate data showed an increase of the rate to 90 per 100,000 with an estimated 27,878 Venezuelans murdered adding up to nearly 20% of murders in the Latin American region. No figure for the country's homicide rate was released that year. Over 90 percent of homicides in Venezuela go unpunished. In many cases, Colombian terrorists or local guerillas are believed to be the perpetrators. [25] The New Yorker reporter found that even stairwells in a public hospital were not safe from robbers, who preyed on staff and patients despite the large number of security forces guarding the hospital, saying this was because the police were assigned to contain journalists who might embarrass the government with exposs on the state of the hospital; they were not assigned to protect its occupants. While the police will generally respond to an emergency situation, investigative follow-up is intermittent and perpetrators of crime are rarely caught. The majority of crimes that dominate the environment in Caracas are express kidnappings, carjackings, robberies, and home invasions. 2021 12 Monthly Part 1 Crimes; 2021 11 Monthly Part 1 Crimes; . Statistics show Venezuela crime rate is at least eight times the U.S. rate; . [133], By 2018 deep into the crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela, prisoners suffered from starvation and communicable diseases in addition to violence as a result of the mismanagement and overcrowding of prisons. There's a lot of poverty in the country, which can lead to desperate measures taken by some people. More than 11,000 murders were reported in 2003, as compared with only 2,000 in 1991. [54] According to experts, kidnappings and torture by the Directorate of Military Counterintelligence increased during the 8-year tenure of Hugo Carvajal. Retrieved from, Last edited on 14 December 2022, at 22:16, United States Drug Enforcement Administration, Minister of the Popular Power for Interior, Justice and Peace, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, "Latin America Scores Lowest on Security", "Venezuela es el pas ms inseguro del mundo, segn un estudio", "With 28,479 killings, Venezuela takes second spot on world murder ranking", "Tres fases de la violencia homicida en Venezuela", "Chavez leaves Venezuelan economy more equal, less stable", "For Venezuela, Drop In Global Oil Prices Could Be Catastrophic", "Why Venezuelans worry more about food than crime", "Looting and violence on the rise in Venezuela supermarkets", "On Venezuela's highways, a disabled truck increasingly means a looted truck", "Venezuela murder rate dips, partly due to migration: monitoring group", "Venezuela, otra vez el pas ms peligroso de Amrica Latina: registr 16.506 muertes violentas en 2019", "Venezuelan beauty queen gets carjacked at gunpoint", "Venezuelans regret gun ban, 'a declaration of war against an unarmed population', "Crime is so bad in Venezuela that even soldiers were ordered to avoid driving at night", "Los venezolanos creen vivir en el pas ms peligroso del mundo", "Reports of kidnapping in Venezuela nearly double in 2016", "Venezuela rocked by killing of beauty queen Monica Spear", "Venezuela se desangra: rcord de homicidios en 2013", "Venezuela's Homicide Rate Rises, NGO's Report Says", "Venezuela, More Deadly Than Iraq, Wonders Why", "Venezuela sufre 2000 muertes violentas por mes", "Venezuela's Maduro launches civilian disarmament plan", "Observer group: Venezuelan homicide rate rose in 2015, rivaling El Salvador as world's highest", "Venezuela first among the most violent countries in LatAm", "Attorney General's UN Gaffe Reveals Venezuela's Record-High Murder Rate Violence at Epidemic Levels Based on Government's Own Figures", "Venezuela's escalating violence seen in killing of Carolina Herrera's nephew", "One in 10 girls sexually abused worldwide: UN", "Venezuela favorece a los familiares de fallecidos que no informan a la prensa", "Hubo 16,917 secuestros en 2009 en Venezuela", "SeguridadPblicayPrivada VenezuelayBolivia", "Venezuela: Gravsima Crisis de Seguridad Pblica by Lexys Rendon", "Segn el Cicpc el 2011 cerr con 1.150 secuestros en todo el pas Sucesos", "Welcome to Venezuela, the kidnap capital of the world", "Taking no prisoners in the kidnap capital of the world: On the streets of Caracas with an elite police squad", "EN EL 2009 SE COMETIERON MS DE 16.000 SECUESTROS EN VENEZUELA, SEGN EL GOBIERNO LOCAL", "Venezuela y los secuestros diarios que no se reportan", "Ubican a Venezuela en el quinto lugar en riesgo de secuestros", "For Venezuelans, Kidnappings Are Simply Business As Usual", "Agentes de inteligencia venezolanos operan bandas de secuestro y extorsin", "FARC Computer Files Are Authentic, Interpol Probe Finds", "$300 Million From Chavez to FARC a Fake", "Interpol Analysis of FARC Laptop Authenticity Will Not "Prove" Links Between Venezuela, Rebels", "Treasury Targets Venezuelan Government Officials Supporting the FARC", "National Assembly removes Justice Aponte Aponte", "Venezuelan official: Ex-judge 'sold his soul' to the DEA", "Corrupt military officials helping Venezuela drug trade flourish", "Fuente AP: Aponte Aponte est en contacto con la DEA. The penalty for illegally selling or carrying a firearm is a prison sentence of up to 20 years. 08-01-2021 14:08:00 ZULU. [78], Due to the largely unofficial economy that exists in Venezuela in which nearly every citizen participates, organized crime thrived as smuggling has been assisted by Colombian gangs, the Bolivarian National Guard and government officials. But the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a nongovernmental group, estimated that there were 27,875 murders that year, which would make Venezuela's homicide rate one of the highest in the world . [51][52] Most kidnapping victims are released after a ransom is paid, but in 2016, at least 18 kidnapped people were killed. This left police across the country vastly out-gunned by narcotraffickers and other criminal groups. [51][52] Available data underestimates the amount of express kidnapping, where victims are typically released in less than two days after relatives pay a quick ransom. Human rights groups suggest that the government's policing efforts are too "timid". [18] The Bolivarian Revolution attempted to "destroy what previously existed, the status quo of society" with instability increasing. If the value is 0, it means it is perceived as very low, and if the value is 100, it means it is . Home invasions have occurred in buildings where U.S. Embassy employees reside. In 2015, Venezuela's homicide rate was the world . (February 8, 2023). By one estimate the country has the highest per-capita murder rate in the world. . . In an interview with Prison Minister Iris Varela, the minister explained how all prisons were under her control and that there was no anarchy. Venezuela - Crime. [146], In May 2020, inmates rioted at the Llanos Penitentiary Center in Guanare, leading to 40 deaths. Accessed March 04, 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/984669/homicide-rate-venezuela/, InSight Crime. The poverty rate in Venezuela is 82 percent, and the unemployment rate is 18 percent. Backlinks from other websites and blogs are the lifeblood of our site and are our primary source of new traffic. They also mentioned that hundreds of violent deaths occur at Venezuelan prisons each year. Geography - note. Members of the security forces charged with or convicted of crimes rarely were imprisoned. South Africa - 36.40. [5] In 1994, when Rafael Caldera became president, he attempted to strengthen Venezuela's "institution", staying in the center of political issues, performing both conservative and reformative actions that resulted in the increase of the murder rate stopping; though his popularity and the public's trust in the political system decreased.[5]. Venezuela was once the wealthiest country in South America, but in recent years millions have fled the country amid mass starvation and violence after socialist policies were enacted and . Please check your download folder. [1], Crime has also continued to increase under Chvez's successor, President Nicols Maduro, who continued Chvez's policies that disrupted Venezuela's socioeconomic status. During the tenure of Minister of Prison Services Iris Varela, pranes were given control of prisons with the belief that they would maintain leadership and lower violence. [78], At least 80% of kidnappings occur in a limited area around Caracas and including Miranda State. We have provided a few examples below that you can copy and paste to your site: Your image export is now complete. Murder rate : Homicide rate per year per 100,000 inhabitants in various countries. In the case of high-profile killings, the authorities quickly round up suspects, but rarely produce evidence linking these individuals to the crime. [45], In leaked government INE data for kidnappings in the year 2009, the number of kidnappings were at an estimated 16,917, contrasting the CICPCs number of only 673,[43] before the Venezuelan government blocked the data. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in murders per 100,000 people, the country is surpassed only by Cte d'Ivoire, El Salvador, and Honduras. [13] In July 2015, BBC News stated that due to the common shortages in Venezuela, every week there are videos shared online showing Venezuelans looting supermarkets and trucks for food. [78], In the World Report 2014 by Human Rights Watch, the organization stated that "Venezuelan prisons are among the most violent in Latin America". [66][67] Due to the fact that the "sobrinos" (nephews in Spanish) of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were arrested for narcotics trafficking, the media described the nephews as the narcosobrinos. The State Department also states that the "Government of Venezuela does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking" explaining that Venezuelan authorities trained government officials about trafficking, but the Venezuelan government "did not publicly document progress on prosecutions and convictions of trafficking offenders or on victim identification and assistance". According to the Public Ministrys 2010 annual report, approximately 9 percent of the 378,108 cases involving common crimes resulted in the filing of criminal charges. The mass release, however, quickly overwhelmed the capacity of police to maintain order. Most kidnappings occur around "peace zones" where official police withdrew and gangs took over;[51] according to NBC News, "experts say the government has armed these groups [who] control large territories, financed through extortion and the drug trade".