Noses held as pressure builds to shut down the Caracas city morgue at Bello Monte

Hot dog stallholders in west Caracas are complaining that they're constantly hassled by the Libertador municipal police. They claim the cops took away their equipment and are keeping it under lock and key at a police station in Cota 905, refusing to return it for reasons unexplained.

Nine new jails are to be built this year, according to Interior and Justice Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin. Time was when one of his predecessors, Jesse Chacón, put the number at two. As it turns out, most of the projects will consist of additions to existing prisons including the Coro, Yare and El Rodeo complexes.

Investigators working on the murder of Prosecutor Carlos Lugo in Falcon state reckon the killer was a former officer with the state police hired under a "hit contract" for persons yet unknown. Scientific and investigative police (Cicpc) chief Marco Chavez claims the case is "80 percent" solved.

Neighbors in Carmen, a slum in far from salubrious Antimano, southwest Caracas, are up in arms claiming the authorities failed to stop waste water from flooding their homes. They say neither the Metropolitan Mayor's Office nor its Infrastructure Ministry even answered their pleas for help.

Pressure is building to shut down the city morgue at Bello Monte because it's no longer in a condition to handle all the bodies that turn up and the refrigeration's on the blink. Noses were held as officials from the National Guard (GN), fire brigade, prosecutors' office and health agencies inspected the morgue earlier this week.

Two very elderly ladies are living a lonely life on the eleventh floor of a tower block in El Recreo. Candelaria Mantill, who's chalked up a century, and her neighbor, Ana Flores, a relatively youthful 90, haven't been able to get out for over a year because none of the lifts are working.