Suicide rates jump 180% in most socialist country on earth

Written by our Venezuela correspondent.

The suicide rate broke a record in Venezuela, increasing the last three years and placing the figures at 9 and 10 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Before Chavismo, suicide represented between 4 and 5 people per 100,000 inhabitants in Venezuela. Despite the oil boom, it increased between 8 and 9 suicides, but as of 2015 suicides skyrocketed. The rate quadrupled in the last 15 years, becoming a social phenomenon.

Roberto Briceño León, director of the Venezuelan Violence Observatory reported that “a suicide rate like that of today has never been reached.”

“In Venezuela, the suicide rate has increased between 2015 and early 2019 The increase is between 140 and 180%, due to the uncertainty and hopelessness in which the Venezuelan population is mired,” said the sociologist.

The new figure means a significant increase compared to the 2012 rate in Venezuela, when it was 4 per 100 thousand inhabitants. Venezuela, the nation that studies were once considered the “happiest country in the world”, became the country of death, sadness, emigration and suicide.

Fermín Mármol García, a criminal lawyer, told PanAm Post that Venezuela is not a country that has been characterized by the occurrence of suicides, however, the country situation is an influential factor in making this drastic decision.

Marmol explained that some of the main causes for suicide among Venezuelans include the breaking up of families with the increase in diaspora, loss of dreams and quality of life, shortage of food and medicine; and even injustice and impunity.

“The diaspora, for example, that culture of emigrating, of the breakdown of the family, of the isolation of our sentimental ties, was not part of the Venezuelan culture and that has caused high psycho-emotional pressures. In addition, we are now on a hyperinflation path that is also a determining factor in psycho-emotional pressure, ”he said.

.