Metamorphosis of the offense of kidnap in the State of Zulia, Venezuela

Abstract

The offense of kidnap is a social calamity having experienced mutations in the course of time. Year 2009 ended with an unprecedented figure of kidnappings reported in Venezuela.

Data contributed by official agencies reveal that, during 2008, there were 537 cases which accounts for a 52% increase with respect to the total reported in 2007, while the figure in 2009 grew by 62.82% with relation to the previous year.

The objective of this research is describing the crime of kidnap in Venezuela, with special reference to the State of Zulia, a zone bordering Colombia; for this purpose, a methodology of the documentary-descriptive type is used. It reveals that no predefined schemes exist to characterize this criminal type  because, in the way it has been occurring, it is likely to take place at any time under any circumstance, not exclusively amid subjects with a high socio-economic or political status, but even at the level of people with the lowest economic means, thus unable to meet the demands of the kidnappers; hence the proliferation of the so-called “secuestro exprés” (“express kidnapping”) mode.

The patterns of the offense of kidnap in Venezuela have been changing in a very significant manner: from being a predominantly political and bordering crime carried out by organized groups, it has become one of the most usual - particularly economic – urban objectives, committed by common criminals for a profit-driven purpose. 

Actually, the State of Zulia continues to rise in the list of states with the highest incidence of this crime in Venezuela, though it has not remained in the first place now that various cities in other regions have began to occupy its position, currently lead by Caracas, the capital city.