CAVIM

VenEconomy: Venezuela's Arsenal in Flames

From the Editors of VenEconomy

In the early hours of this Sunday morning, a tremendous explosion caused a fire in four of the 32 depots of the state-owned weapons and munitions company, Compañía Anónima Venezolana de Industrias Militares (CAVIM), located in a populated area of Maracay, Aragua state.

One person was killed in the accident killed, three more were injured, and 6,500 families had to be evacuated from their homes. Despite the lamentable loss of a human life and the considerable economic and material losses, the country can be thankful that the accident did not have even more lamentable consequences. If the explosion at CAVIM had occurred during business hours and at peak traffic hours, the number of fatal victims could have been much higher.

Even so, the danger of further accidents is still latent, as the explosion could have scattered weapons or shrapnel over a much wider area, which is why the government has called on the population to report any materials of this kind they find in neighboring areas and to refrain from handling them.

Vice-president Elías Jaua announced just hours after the incident that the State intelligence services had been activated to clarify the causes of the accident.

What really needs clarifying here, however, is not so much whether it was a result of negligence or whether imperialism had a hand in it, but how come the Ministries of Defense, Home Affairs and Justice, and the Environment and other government agencies having responsibilities in the matter allowed an arsenal of this size to continue operating in such a densely built-up area. 

It could be claimed that, when CAVIM was originally set up on the outskirts of Maracay, this area was not populated. Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is that, when the city started to spread and residential and shanty areas began to spring up, it was the duty of the government to relocate these depots to a place where they would not pose a safety hazard to the population.

One would think that now, given the latent threat that having weapons stored close to populated areas poses and the President’s announcements that housing is to be built in that area, the government will take the necessary steps to first remove CAVIM from the area before starting to build.

One would also hope that this unfortunate accident will not serve as an excuse for the government to step up its purchase of weapons and munitions.