Venezuela is the second most warring country in South America, after Colombia, which is in a civil war. That's the conclusion of the people behind the Global Peace Index.
This doesn't surprise us at all, of course. Only nine countries spent more money importing weapons last year. Some of Chávez's sycophants abroad say Venezuela's Defence budget gets a lower chunk than in other places but they seem to forget (or they pretend to ignore) that a lot of what the current military regime spends on weapons comes from Fonden, the Fondo para el Desarrollo Endógeno.
19 thousand people were murdered in Venezuela last year. The murder rate has more than tripled since the caudillo from Venezuela's Llanos came to power 13 years ago.