Chávez mulls police plan; proposals have now been handed over to the president for his consideration

Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): The long-awaited proposal for a law aimed at turning around Venezuela's problematic police forces finally landed up at the Miraflores Presidential Palace, a week ago. This plan has been waiting in the wings for years, but now at least might be heading towards first base.
But even as President Hugo Chávez mulls the proposals, a member of a committee which has been looking at the problem warned that it could take up to five years before the plan really starts producing results.

The warning came from from Andrés Antillano, a criminologist who was on the Police Reform Commission (Conarepol).

• The commission has now been disbanded even before work begins on turning a tentative plan into the law of the land – and one that applies to law enforcers as much as everybody else.

Even so, Antillano is said to have been summoned to Miraflores to discuss the proposals in detail with the president. He has said that the government is willing to work on the plan and that some "substantial changes" could be seen within six months, at least at the municipal level of Venezuela's multiple police foces.
Antillano's statement implies one of two things: either the National Assembly (AN) will rush through legislation on a highly complicated issue; or the president will use his special powers under the Enabling Law to decree the reforms into law.

When it first emerged that Chávez might go it alone, rumblings of discontent were heard at the Assembly. Legislators argued that the issue was simply too big to be treated in full fell swoop by decree, and that it required substantial discussion and modification in parliament.

Some outspoken souls even went as far as to point out that police reform had not been included in the areas of policy designated as eligible for being treated by decree under the Enabling Law.

That said, in private, one legislator conceded that he and his colleagues "have been sitting on our haunches for too long, and the people want results."
The nub of the proposal is the creation of a single national police force, but this poses questions about what would happen to the myriad forces now policing the country in one capacity or another. Each state has its own force, and so do municipalities.

Overlying this mosaic, there are a few law enforcement agencies at the national level such as the scientific and investigative police (Cicpc), the state security service (Disip) and the Military Intelligence Directive (DIM). This threatens to complicate the plan.