Venezuela’s bishops urge end to country’s political, social divides
CARACAS, Venezuela – As the presidential election year begins, Venezuela’s bishops urged people to come together for the common good, “based on mutual respect and appreciation,” to close the country’s political and social divides.
In a pastoral letter covering topics ranging from human rights to crime and prisons to politics, the bishops acknowledged that “building unity among Venezuelans is not an easy task,” but said, “the progress and welfare of this country can only be achieved with the participation of all citizens.”
The bishops issued the letter in mid-January at the end of their annual assembly, when they elected Archbishop Diego Padron Sanchez of Cumana president of the Venezuelan bishops’ conference.
Venezuela has been highly polarized for years, with little room for negotiation between the government of President Hugo Chavez and the political opposition. The bishops often have taken stands at odds with the controversial chief executive, a former military officer who has been in office since 1999.
The polarization between the president’s supporters and opponents is likely to come to the fore in October, when voters choose a president. It is not clear whether Chavez, who underwent treatment for cancer last year in Cuba, will be a candidate.
Calling on Catholics to pray for and promote the common good, the bishops wrote that the election should be viewed “from the human and Christian standpoint of national reconciliation.”
The election “will be especially important, given the magnitude of the problems the country faces and the opposing social models presented as ways of solving them,” wrote the bishops, urging Venezuelans not to go to the polls “like two sides facing off in a war.”
Among the problems the bishops highlighted are rising crime rates and violence in the country’s overcrowded prisons. Calling crime “a multifaceted problem that is not resolved with partial measures or the militarization of society,” they wrote, “It is necessary to attack the causes of the problem, eliminating poverty not with handouts, but with jobs and high-quality education.”
While the government has not released official crime statistics for several years, a United Nations report recently ranked Caracas as the sixth-most-violent city in the world, with more than 3,000 homicides in 2011.
The country’s prisons are particularly violent. The nongovernmental Venezuelan Prisons Observatory reported that 457 inmates were killed and more than 1,000 were seriously injured in the 400 murders in the country’s 30 prisons. Built to house about 14,000 inmates, the facilities now hold more than 50,000, according to the organization.
Praising the efforts of prison chaplains and volunteers from the church’s prison ministry, the bishops called for “humanizing” the prison system “through respect for life, education for work and the transmission of values.”
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