Caracas Chronicles

Interior Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres cuts a sad figure. A former military man with little knowledge of the civilian world, he is the public face of the government’s crime-fighting “efforts” during an unprecedented crime wave. To him, everything is peachy.

He tries to put on a brave face, though. Here he is asking people for patience, saying that in three or four years the safety situation will be “consolidated.” (Whatever that means – I think the security situation is pretty consolidated right now, meaning it’s not budging). It doesn’t occur to him that he’s already been on the job for quite some time, and that succesful crime-fighting efforts start showing results pretty quickly. But hey, at least he has a cool radio program to talk about what a great job he’s doing!

Here he is asking the police for “discipline and loyalty.” Isn’t his job to enforce discipline? If you have to give a speech to cops reinforcing the idea of discipline – well, that’s your problem right there. It’s not a matter of convincing.

But no, it seems that he – as well as the rest of the government – thinks criminals can be talked out of their bad ways. Why, motorcycle drivers – some of whom are the most violent criminals in the country – don’t even go to meetings with him! The poor sap has even publicly given out his cell phone number so the public can denounce crime directly to him. I mean, really? ¿Eres … o te haces?

That’s him, though – meetings and more meetings. Nothing in his agenda suggests he is doing anything than a big, nationwide terapia de grupo.

You know what meeting he should have? With Nicolás Maduro, asking for more money for cops. With Luisa Ortega, Prosecutor General, demanding the prosecutor’s office do its job. With Gladys Gutierrez, president of the nation’s highest court, demanding more judges.

It pains me to say it, but nothing is going to happen with crime as long as people like Rodríguez Torres and Maduro are in charge.