Santa Teresa, this Venezuelan rum producer who employs gang criminals

Should we forgive the misdeeds of criminals? For Venezuelan rum producer, Santa Teresa, the answer is yes. Twenty years ago, a hacienda security guard was attacked by a gang. The 22 “criminals then had the choice of working for the company or being handed over to the police and being killed,” Alberto Vollmer, CEO of Santa Teresa, told Figaro exclusively. If they chose the first option, they also allowed the creation of the “Alcatraz project”, which aims to reintegrate criminals into society.

This support program, still in force, is based on five pillars, which are respect, restorative justice, psychological support, work education and the values ​​of rugby. In twenty years, 250 men from eleven criminal gangs have been rehabilitated and hired by Santa Alcatraz. Their profiles are diverse, from hitmen to thieves, including people who have kidnapped Venezuelans.

Several opposing gangs also had to learn to live together, as Alberto Vollmer explains: “The tension was palpable. But during a rugby tournament, two chefs shook hands, in absolute silence. The other members followed them and hugged each other, crying.” Among them, some have even become ambassadors of the brand, even internationally. Santa Teresa was responsible for preparing them for public speaking, mixology and even teaching them foreign languages. A winning bet for one of the main rum producers in Venezuela, whose products are exported to around thirty countries and even to certain French wine merchants.

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In addition to this initiative, the brand launched the “Alcatraz rugby club” a few years ago. Every week, more than 900 men and women train on the pitch. Their particularity? They are all prisoners of one of the 36 penitentiary centers in the country, partners of the brand. A school rugby program was also offered in eleven schools, benefiting 2,000 children. “The idea is to educate them from a very young age so that they avoid being recruited by gangs,” notes Alberto Vollmer. Santa Teresa is also investing in the renovation of homes around the hacienda, 600 of which have been “transformed since 2012”.

Thanks to all of these projects, the homicide rate has significantly decreased in Revenga, the municipality where the Santa Teresa hacienda is located, in northern Venezuela. If there were 173 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2003, there would be only 12 in 2013 and 6 in 2023. If they are still too few in South America, these initiatives would (in part) make it possible to reduce the crime which is corroding this region for many years.