Maduro Regime Police and Military Corps Killed More People Than COVID-19 in Venezuela in 2020

The figure is frightening: nearly 3,000 people were killed in Venezuela by the actions of police and military bodies last year. This shocking figure comes from a report by the Venezuelan Human Rights Education-Action Program (PROVEA) and the Gumilla Center.

The study indicates that at least 2853 people were victims of the lethality of armed bodies of the Venezuelan state. And he emphasizes that it is about “serious human rights violations which could constitute Crimes against humanity“.

PROVEA and the Gumilla Center have published their 2020 monitoring, in which they indicated that most of the victims were poor youth, between 18 and 30 years old, “a model of growing discrimination against the lives of young Venezuelans”. FAES was the deadliest police force and Zulia the state with the most casualties: 667 people.

The report

One of the most shocking conclusions of the report is that the high number of victims due to the actions of the Venezuelan police and military forces exceeds coronavirus death toll in the Caribbean country, according to the regime’s official pandemic figures. “Venezuela’s police and military bodies deadlier than COVID-19 in 2020″, Emphasizes writing.

Specifies that a total of 2,853 people were lethal by the armed forces of the Venezuelan state and that this indicates serious human rights violations which could constitute “Crimes against humanity“.

“Most of the victims were young people from popular sectors, aged between 18 and 30., which indicates a pattern of discrimination that endangers the lives of people in this age group. This fact, combined with the exclusion of access to other rights such as education and work, among others, explains the increasing forced migration of young people seeking protection in other states. In a country that has lost its demographic bonus, this pattern of executions worsens the complex humanitarian emergency that the country is going through, ”the report underlines.

Then, he maintains that “even the supposedly” forced “sequestration due to the quarantine decreed by the national executive due to the appearance of the coronavirus pandemic has not stopped the actions of the police and military forces”.

The State as promoter of impunity

Those responsible for the report claimed that the follow-up determined that the thousands of victims left behind by the institutional violence in Venezuela are consequence of a state policy which combines the encouragement given by the high authorities to the commission of abuse and structural impunity given the takeover of the administration of justice by the political project in power.

“Public servants operate freely with the confidence that their conduct will not be investigated or sanctioned, and because they have the support of governors, ministers and other high figures in public management, ”they argue.

They then referred to the case on August 21, when officials of the Bolivarian National Police attached to the Special Action Forces (FAES) component citizens Andrés Eloy Nieves Zacarías and Víctor Manuel Torres were assassinated, television workers Guacamaya TV in the state of Zulia, a means of communication that maintains a profile of support for the regime of Nicolás Maduro.

“To the relief of the families of the victims, the prosecution acted quickly and four days later, the six officials allegedly responsible for the crime were arrested,” he recalls.

Two months earlier, in the early morning of June 11, FAES murdered five people in the El Limón sector in Caracas, Arquímedes Ramón Martínez, Andri Narváez, Roger Blanco, Pedro Pablo Salcedo and Wilmer Yáñez. This latest victim was the escort of Minister Iris Valera, who denounced what had happened and demanded an investigation. 48 hours after the events, the alleged perpetrators were detained.

PROVEA says that in both cases there is a common element: “the victims were linked to the official political project, and although they were victims of police lethality, their relatives had access to justice, which defines a discriminatory model it depends on being linked to the Power faction and making justice a discretionary exercise ”.

Then, the NGO emphasizes that in Venezuela “the majority of the population does not have political favoritism and, therefore, is excluded from the right to an inquiry clarify the facts and punish those who may be responsible for extrajudicial killings ”.

And he adds: “For them, for now, only impunity is guaranteed. The “alleged confrontation” version is almost always dealt with and, as a result, the prosecution does not act with the investigations it should conduct, repeatedly violating due process. “

Zulia, the state with the most cases in 2020

The report states that the states in which the population has suffered most severely from institutional violence by the police and the military were on death row. Zulia, Aragua, Bolívar, Lara, Carabobo and Miranda.

Throughout 2020, Zulia’s state was the one with the most deaths with 667, followed by Aragua with 297. Next, Bolívar appears with 269 dead and Lara with 193. “In many cases relatives or neighbors have denied the version of the confrontation,” the letter said.

Remember then that one of the cases that most affected public opinion in the state of Carabobo was the assassination of Daniel Alexander López Ramírez (28), general practitioner, director of the Bucaral clinic in the municipality of Guacara. He was assassinated during a mixed operation carried out in the town of Guacara.

The official version stated that López Ramírez was a member of a criminal group and allegedly died when confronting police officers who entered a house in the Tesoro del Indio urbanization, municipality of Guacara, in search of suspected criminals.

The information was denied by those close to López, who indicated that the doctor was there because he had been kidnapped by members of a criminal gang to treat the wounds of one of his companions. López’s family assured that the doctor had not confronted the police commission.

FAES, the deadliest police

PROVEA emphasizes that the Bolivarian National Police (PNB), mainly through its elite corps, Special Action Forces (FAES), it’s him deadliest police force. During the first six months of the year, the PNB was responsible for 672 murders, representing 23.55% of the total.

He is closely followed by the Criminal and Criminal Scientific Investigations Corps (CICPC) with 593 cases, which is equivalent to 17.52% of the total. Over the past two years, public debate has eclipsed the responsibility of this body for the hundreds of alleged executions that have taken place in the country. The report focused on the FAES since, acting in fewer states in the country, it is the security organ that violates the right to life the most.underlines the report.

Then specify that State police were responsible for 721 alleged executions, or 25.71%. “The lethality of the Zulia state police responsible for 262 murders, Aragua with 104 and that of Carabobo state with 101 dead,” he added.

The Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) is responsible for 359 cases, the vast majority of which fall under the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB).. “The a significant increase in the number of cases, the responsibility of the FANB ”, indicates PROVEA; while declaring that was able to identify in 2019 the participation of the FANB in ​​55 alleged executions.

Finally, the report underlines that in 2020 the various media reflected the complaints of 103 people, whose relatives or neighbors have claimed to have been arrested alive, but became dead.

Concerning the number of executions of FAES (elite corps of the PNB), they are attributed, in total, 635 deaths, for 22.26%, with the constants that the overwhelming majority of those who have died are men, they were young. The average age was 28.39 years, considering that the age of 228 of the dead was known. In the 462 alleged clashes, three FAES agents were killed.

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