Venezuela's Bishops: "Democracy cannot exist without the right to life"

Monsignor Ubaldo Santana, the chair of the Venezuelan Bishops' Conference (CEV), urged the Venezuelan government to solve the problems affecting Venezuelans, especially high crime rates; instead of trying to accumulate "more power."

At the opening session of the 91st General Assembly of CEV, Santana, who is the Bishop of Maracaibo City, west Venezuela, warned: "Democracy cannot exist without the sacred right to life, the right to property and the right to move freely throughout the territory, without being subject to a curfew imposed by criminals."

After claiming that "Venezuela has become one of the most crime-ridden and violent cities in the world," Santana urged national and regional authorities, as well as law enforcement agencies, to take bold measures to fight high crime rates, which according to non-governmental organizations such as the Venezuelan Program of Education-Action in Human Rights (Provea), left some 10,600 people killed between January and September 2008.

Although in his speech Santana did not refer exactly to the presidential proposal to amend the Constitution to establish indefinite reelection, the chair of the CEV did show concern about the "excessive involvement of rulers and leaders to grasp ampler powers, thus neglecting their main role, which is to rule and solve the serious and concrete problems affecting the Venezuelan people."

The Bishop also warned that "leaving aside the basic needs of the people to seek political power destroys the people and promotes social anarchy."

Making a stand against corruption
The spokesperson of the CEV also urged the agencies that make up the Citizen Power (the offices of the Attorney General, Comptroller General and People's Ombudsman) to make greater efforts to fight corruption, which he described as "cancer."

Although he acknowledged that corruption crimes are not new in Venezuela, he said that corruption has reached "alarming proportions" in the last few years. The main reasons, according to him, are "the gigantic oil revenues, the poor ethics of leaders and businessmen, the lack of institutional controls and the poor education of the population to carry out social monitoring."

When Santana referred to this issue he also offered a "mea culpa" and ordered the priests to "thoroughly review and update our religious and educational programs, and take a more incisive catechesis."

The chair of the CEV also condemned the insults hurled some days ago by President Hugo Chávez at Caracas Archbishop, Cardinal Jorge Urosa.