More than 500 people were killed in Caracas, Venezuela, in December, giving support to a recent report that called the city the murder capital of the world, CNN reported.
It's against that backdrop that the country's minister for interior relations and justice announced efforts this week to combat crime in 2009.
Minister Tareck El Aissami said Monday he will form 50 community police units in Caracas and take other measures so that "we can have in a short time a culture of peace, tranquility and calm for all the Venezuelan public."