Tags
Venezuelan authorities on Friday arrested six former policemen who appeared in uniform in a homemade video cursing and firing their pistols in the air, embarrassing a new national force set up to improve the police’s dire image.
The video, widely watched online, prompted fresh criticism of a government that is already under pressure as it tries to reform a patchwork of ill-paid, sometimes corrupt forces that have struggled to handle shocking violent crime rates.
The six young men were all members of the new ‘Bolivarian’ national police force, named for 19th century independence hero Simon Bolivar and set up by late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.
They were arrested on Friday, a statement from the attorney-general’s office said, and will be charged with improper use of their service weapons.
They were fired from the police after the video surfaced online this month.
Policing is a hot topic in Venezuela, where murders and armed robberies are common, and more people have been killed in the last five years than in Mexico’s drug war. The government has said it believes about a fifth of all crime is committed by members of the security services.
Better equipped and supposedly better trained, including in human rights, the national force was meant to represent a break with disgraced units such as the disbanded Metropolitan Police in Caracas, which had been linked to homicide, kidnapping, extortion and other offenses.
There are no comments.
SPORT Saying goodbye is never easy, especially when you are saying farewell to those that have left a positive impression. That was the case earlier this month when Canada hosted Mexico in a friendly at BC Place stadium in Vancouver.
TECHNOLOGY Some 60mn primary-school-age children have no access to formal education
CULTURE Lekhwiya’s El Arabi scores the equaliser after Tresor is sent off; Tabata, al-Harazi score for QSL champions
ARABIA The Yemeni Minister of Tourism, Dr Mohamed Abdul Majid Qubati, yesterday expressed hope that the 48-hour ceasefire in Yemen declared by the Command of Coalition Forces on Saturday will be maintained in order to lift the siege imposed on Taz City and ease the entry of humanitarian aid to the besieged
ARABIA Some 200 teachers from schools across the country attended Qatar Museum’s (QM) first ever Teachers Council at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) yesterday.
ARABIA The Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC) of Qatar and the Indonesian Supreme Court (SCI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on judicial co-operation, it was announced yesterday.
ECONOMY Sri Lanka is keen on importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar as part of government policy to shift to clean energy, Minister of City Planning and Water Supply Rauff Hakeem has said.
