In baseball scoreboards news: Caracas, Venezuela is generally considered the most dangerous city in the world, where an average of over 25 people are day are murdered. Perhaps then it is not so surprising that the women’s baseball world championship has been moved to fully militarized stadiums outside of the city the day after a player was shot in the stadium during a game.

The victim was from Hong Kong, and the team immediately withdrew from the tournament after the incident. Fortunately, the bullet only hit her in the calf, and she consequently was not seriously injured. The bullet itself was not aimed directly at her, but was a stray bullet coming from an undetermined source. Doctors were able to remove the bullet, and the player will not suffer any long term physical problems as a result of it. The authorities of Caracas now have an international incident on their hands and plenty of embarrassing questions.

In conjunction with this incident, a newspaper has published a photo of bodies piled up in a morgue, all of whom were apparently murdered. There are no official government figures, but non-governmental groups estimate that around 16,000 people are murdered in Venezuela each year. Most of these cases go unpunished, and as a result there is almost a sense of impunity in the country.

The authorities in Caracas are now holding the baseball event in a military base that is considered the safest place to be in the city. It has been reported that the President Hugo Chavez stays there overnight at least a few times a week.

With the baseball scoreboards showing that Hong Kong were leading against the Netherlands, the victim Cheuk was standing at third base during the 4th innings of the game when a shot was heard and she fell straight to the ground. No one knows from where the bullet originated, but it is possible that it came from outside the stadium, and from the hillside slums that overlook it. The sports minster was very apologetic to Cheuk and the team from Honk Kong, as they left from the airport the next day. He promised a big increase in security to the other teams, and the games re-started amid a show of force, including military helicopters flying overhead for the entire duration of each match.

This is great fodder for critics of the Chavez government. Violent crime is rampant in the country, and Chavez is one of the few remaining people who has yet to admit that. Caracas is possibly more dangerous than even Baghdad, and every week in the city dozens of people are killed, many of them young men in the hillside slums that surround the city. Many people have heard about the slums in Rio, but not so many know that the most extensive slums in Latin America are located here in Caracas. Something has to be done about the violent crime rate in Venezuela, and let’s hope that something good will come out of this incident, and that some measures will be taken.

For more information, go to: en.wikipedia.org