Monica Spear Dead: Former Miss Venezuela Killed In Attempted Robbery

[Bacchus4.0]

Source: Huff Post



The 29-year-old star was travelling with her husband and daughter on the Puerto Cabello-Valencia highway in Venezuela when her car crashed.

Police reports confirmed that Spear and her husband Thomas Henry Berry, 49, were shot and killed by unknown assailants while the couple’s 5-year-old daughter was injured by a bullet in her leg.

The family was on vacation for the holidays and was traveling in a grey 2002 Corolla Toyota toward the city of Valencia at the time of the attack. Mónica was currently living in Miami and was expected to return to the United States this week.

In an interview with HuffPost Voces, the star confessed she left her native Venezuela due to the insecurity.




Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/07/monica-spears-dead_n_4554456.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment&ir=Entertainment

[hack89]

1. Venezuela is an incredibly violent country. nt

[MindMover]

2. unlike the USA ...

[hack89]

4. Their murder rate is eight times ours - fourth highest in the entire world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

We, on the other hand, have cut our murder rate in half over the past 20 years.

[heaven05]

6. yeah well we are still

pretty high up on the list of counties/intentional homicides=mostly gun violence. Cut our murder rate? Who are you fooling? Yourself only.

[hack89]

7. Shall we look at the FBI crime stats?

US murder rate in 1991 was 9.8. In 2010 it was 4.8

Notice also the drop in actual deaths from 24,703 to 14,748?

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10tbl01.xls

As you were saying?

[heaven05]

8. I looked

and the FBI has a vested interest in lying about stats. Boston U, 'How to lie with statistics'. I took that class. Please, it is not amerikkka right or wrong. I'm not that person, so go spread your warmth and beauty with someone else. I don't want to read bullshit from anyone. New Years resolution: speak out when bullshit is presented. I'm done with you.

[hack89]

10. So the FBI is lying? What stats do you trust? nt

[heaven05]

12. murder rates by country.

very telling.

[hack89]

13. We are at 105 internationally. VZ is number four.

very telling.

[kiva]

14. Maybe we need a new woo thread,

this time about people who think that because they read something once about manipulating statistics they are an expert...we could call it Jenny McCarthy Does Statistics.

[closeupready]

15. Yes, and throw in circumcision and 'Olive Garden Does Italian',

just to spice things up...

[Ranchemp.]

17. The FBI has a vested interest in lying about the number of firearms homicides?

You of course have proof of this?

[heaven05]

23. no of course not

who am I to think that the image amerika wants to uphold to the world as 'land of the free, home of the brave', should be besmirched by the truth of it's violent and cruel culture/society. I do not care that your smiley faces are telling me that I am crazy. No stat from any government agency like the FBI is not without suspicion. Your smiley snarkiness is your problem. Yes the FBI< NSA< CIA< 'leader's LIE. So the GOD bless amerika crowd. keep crowing. Maybe one day god will hear you. !!!! I doubt it, but maybe.

[Ranchemp.]

42. In other words,

you're just blowing smoke.

[heaven05]

43. In other words, your opinion means

ZERO to me. I smell your smoke, see your mirrors and just know........you're blinded by the darkness and there is no hope for you. Have a good life........I guess.

[Ranchemp.]

44. Gee, thanks,

I am having an excellent life, and it's about to get better in April.

[7962]

37. Sounds like the same 'ol 9/11 and Kennedy conspiracy stuff: The evidence is rigged!

Cause I dont like what it says it MUST be rigged!

[weissmam]

16. actually in truth

violent crime in the US has been on a decline for a long time, the facts to back this up and plentiful and substantial

[smiley]

27. we can thank Roe vs. Wade for this

http://freakonomics.com/2005/05/15/abortion-and-crime-who-should-you-believe/

[MADem]

40. Yes, unlike the USA.

Our crime rate has been going down, VZ's has been going up.

This poor woman and her family weren't even in a new car--they were driving an 11 year old vehicle.

Here's some additional material to help you understand:

Venezuela has one of the highest murder rates in the world. According to a December report by the Venezuelan Observatory on Violence, an NGO, there were 24,763 murders in Venezuela in 2013, a 14 percent rise in homicides from 2012. UN data from 2010 shows that Venezuela had the fourth highest murder rate in the world behind Honduras, El Salvador, and Jamaica.

[snooper2]

3. Just a couple bumps in the road

until Maduro turns it into a socialist paradise!

[Archae]

5. Maduro will blame it on the US.

He blames just about everything else he screws up on the US...

[Comrade Grumpy]

19. Using a random murder, or even murder rates, to indict socialism is pretty lame.

Especially when compared with murder rates in neighboring countries, like Honduras, which is ruled by rightists, but has a murder rate twice that of Venezuela.

[snooper2]

20. you are right...

Easier to use the failed/failing economic system there!

[Ash_F]

24. Honduras poverty rate is also twice as high.

Twice the poverty rate as Venezuela, twice the murder rate. Sounds like an indictment of rightwingism to me if we are to go by the logic in your previous two posts.

Are you advocating for rightwingism on a Democratic site? Or are you just very bad at logic? Or both?

[Bacchus4.0]

22. a comparison of neighboring countries would show Ven is the highest in South America and second only

to Honduras.

[Ash_F]

25. Which has double the poverty rate.

Question: Do the neighboring countries excepting Honduras also have a lower poverty rate than Ve? Are those countries more or less urban?

Can statistics for countries like Colombia be found, or trusted?

[Bacchus4.0]

26. some do some don't. Colombia has about half murder rate of Ven.

Venezuela has been a middle income country for decades at least. Chile, Argentina, Uruguay are about the only countries with a lower poverty rate than Ven.

Countries with both lower and higher poverty rates than Ven have lower murder rates, much lower. Including Colombia. Venezuela does not release official statistics on homicides as the statistics only keep going up year after year after year. NGOs track the info and report it. Colombia publishes police statistics as far as I know and have about 15,000 murders per year out of 50 million population where last year Ven was 24,000 homicides out of about 30 million population in 2013.

10 years to 12 years ago the homicide numbers were reversed for Colombia and Ven.

[Ash_F]

28. And do you trust Colombia's statistics?

For one thing, deaths from the ongoing civil war probably don't factor in. And they probably should.

Further, I would be very skeptical of the statistics from a country that is in a bad enough political state that there is a civil war in the first place.

[Bacchus4.0]

31. I have no reason to doubt them but cannot verify them but I certainly would doubt

any numbers coming from the government of Venezuela since they refuse to release their homicide statistics.

I do not know if Colombia statistics include guerrilla or paramilitary murders but assume they do. However, I would note while there is an existing internal conflict in Colombia, the numbers of casualties do not approach Venezuela where a typical weekend just in Caracas 30 or 40 people are murdered.

Venezuela's homicides exceed deaths in the Iraq war zone and dwarve Mexico's violence that we have heard so much about in the last frew years. There's plenty of info and stats on that you can go look for. Don't worry, other leftist governments in the region have been somewhat more successful in at least containing crime and expanding economic opportunity. Peru is an excellent example.

[Ash_F]

29. Also Chile, Argentina, Uruguay are probably less urban than Ve

How closely people live together has a big effect on crime. Something to consider.

[Bacchus4.0]

32. Buenos Aires is bigger than Caracas, Santiago has to be close

and you don't see anywhere near the violence. Bogota is larger and certainly has crime and murder issues, but its nothing like Caracas.

This really isn't news. The violence spiral started about 15 years ago and now its absolutely horrendous. Lots of info you can investigate for yourself.

[Ash_F]

33. Individual cities stats do not tell you about the urban living rate of the entire nation. /nt

[Bacchus4.0]

34. both Mexico and COlombia have larger populations with significant urban areas

and while indeed they have violence problems, they don't have Venezuela violence rates.

So Colombia with about the same land area as Ven, with a population of at least 20 million more has a lower homicide raw number total and significantly lower murder rate.


El Salvador and Honduras are the two other countries in Latin America with sky rocket murder rates. Both of those countries have significantly higher poverty rates than Ven so that doesn't explain Ven's position. More likely its impunity, and government indifference and corruption that contributes to the sky high murder levels. The police are implicated in 20% of crime and that comes from Ven's own Interior Minister. You can go verify that. No-one is following the Venezuela model for achieving a prosperous and peaceful nation.

[Ash_F]

35. It makes sense that two countries with higher poverty rates than Ve have higher crime rates

Poverty combined with dense urbanity leads to higher crime. A high amount of either will lead to higher crime but the combination is particularly bad

Of course proper law enforcement matters, as is acknowledged by Venezuela's own government, but to disregard the above is disingenuous.

As for Venezuela's model. I agree that it is not the best in SA, but it is far better than what the opposition presented in the last two elections(the Spanish Mitt Romney).

[hrmjustin]

9. May they rest in peace.

[FSogol]

11. Sad. She was a big star in the telenovellas. n/t

[1000words]

18. My condolences to their families

I'll save any political comments for a later time. It seems like the respectful thing to do ...

[JustAnotherGen]

30. +1 and

My heart breaks for that little girl.

[Beacool]

21. I know quite a few people from Venezuela.

Crime has been a huge issue for some years now. That's why those who can, leave the country.

I'm sorry about the murder of this couple. I'm glad to hear that their child survived.

May they rest in peace.

[JI7]

36. it is strange because poverty has actually gone down in venezuela while crime has went up

and i don't think they have a huge problem like a drug war in mexico which could be the cause.

maybe has to do with government not providing effective security because of fears of a coup ?

[Ash_F]

38. Probably the urban population has gone up significantly

Coupled with a lack of housing and dense living conditions. Even if people are generally monetarily 'richer' than before, it is a recipe for increased crime.

[cvoogt]

39. Yes it is bad there.

I can at least attest to how it was when I was there in 83, as a kid on family vacation. We were stopped by gunmen demanding a bribe, and my parents grudgingly obliged. The next time around when we were roadblocked, my mother had had enough and floored it. My parents got an earful from their friends when we got home, due to how dangerous a thing that was to do, but it was the principal of the matter. Enough was enough, and there was no more money to be had anyway.

[secondwind]

41. A friend of mine lost her son, 46 years old, on March 15th in Venezuela... He was traveling there

to look at condos... He was a mortgage banker.... His car was carjacked, and he was thrown from the 9th floor balcony of a building.

She had to wait two months for the State Dept to send her son's body back.... RIP Ralphie.

DON'T TRAVEL TO VENEZUELA.