The head of the Republican Party caucus of deputies, Cristóbal Urruticoechea, presented a bill that seeks to increase prison sentences for all those who commit crimes of threats, blackmail and coercion.
It should be noted that during the last time, this type of illicit has been associated with various groups, such as the Aragua Train, who have used extortion as a method to commit crimes.
According to the document, to which Emol obtained access, it is maintained that “in view of the proliferation of crimes of threats that aggravates the situation of insecurity that plagues the country, the bill raises the penalties for the crimes of blackmail provided for in articles 296 and 207 of the Criminal Code, doing the same for a reason of concordance with the penalty provided for in article 161-B of that legal body.”
Likewise, the measure “transfers from a quasi-crime the circumstance of making a threat without the requirements of seriousness and plausibility, which considers in the incorporation of a new second paragraph of article 297 a crime of coercion.”
In addition, it is reported that “the security measure of prohibition of participants – without distinguishing between authors, accomplices or cover-ups – of approaching the victim and his family (understood according to the definition of the final paragraph of article 296) is always imposed”.
Urruticoechea explained that “every day we see through the press new crimes that involve threats and extortion, serious cases that come from organized crime that has unfortunately been installed in our country.”
Given this, he pointed out that “the increase in penalties is justified on the understanding that it is a particularly serious offense when it affects the freedom of people and forces them to do something they do not want, being subjected to the fear of harm to their families or their property.”
“Currently the penalties for these crimes are so low, that in most cases the criminals do not serve a prison sentence, and that is what we want to change,” he concluded.
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