 In the first two months of 2014, nearly 3,000 people were murdered – 10% more than in the previous year and 500% higher than when Hugo Chávez first took office.In 2014, "Quartz" claimed that the high murder rate was due to Venezuela's “ growing poverty rate; rampant corruption; high levels of gun ownership; and a failure to punish murderers (91% of the murders go unpunished, according to the Institute for Research on Coexistence and Citizen Security).” InsightCrime attributed the escalating violence to "high levels of corruption, a lack of investment in the police force and weak gun control.