A Heavy hand and a Weak Arm
Abstract
This chapter explores the influence of periods of political confrontation between the Venezuelan government and the opposition in the state’s approach to criminality and organised crime. It introduces the metaphor of "Heavy Hand and Weak Arm" to portray the violent and inconsistent features of the government's crime control strategies. Drawing from qualitative interviews and secondary sources, we found that, early in their lifespan, the Venezuelan government tended to tolerate criminality and foster alliances with non-state armed groups to violently confront opposition’s attempts to overthrow them. We portray these early dynamics as a two-fold process of criminalising politics and politicising crime. When political confrontation declined, the government shifted its focus to crime control. The government’s initial approach to criminality depended on the repressive state’s capacity. However, as this strategy overburdened the judicial system, the economy worsened, and new periods of political confrontation emerged, the government used indiscriminate state violence against localities harbouring criminal groups, and returned to tolerating and allying with other non-state armed groups. The analysis of the Venezuelan government strategies offers a stark illustration of the profound impact that a state with limited resources can have, contrary to conventional assumptions of the state as an absent entity in criminal and violence dynamics. The chapter concludes that the government and the opposition confrontation can significantly affect how the government approaches criminality, especially when both appeal to extra-institutional strategies, as seen in the Venezuelan case. Moreover, understanding these dynamics enhances comprehension of government security strategies in conflict and non-conflict scenarios.