Confusion over killings ... Minister questions media estimates

Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): In the absence of official figures, press estimates based on the number of bodies of murdered people turning up at the city morgue suggested that as many as 56 people died as a result of violence in Caracas during the long Easter Weekend. This went against the trend of rough estimates since the turn of the year. These have indicated that the weekend average came down to around 30 after a brief but harsh upward swing during the festive season.

Interior and Justice Minister Ramón Rodríguez Chacín took issue with the reports, saying crime reporters had gotten it all wrong. He said the media's figures for the capital were more in line with murders across the entire country last weekend. He went on to insist the Easter murder rate was "well down on the year before" – but he didn't go into detail. Reports later spoke of 28 murders, down from 33 a year ago.

The authorities used to issue weekend murder statistics as a matter of course on Mondays, but this stopped last year for reasons that remain unexplained.