Repression in Petare, the stronghold of Chavez who rose against the regime – 02/03/2019

On the eastern hills of Caracas stands the district of Petares, an old town in Sucre considered as the region where the homicide rate is highest. Its inhabitants, the historic Chavists, they have also become the most rebellious in this wave of demonstrations against the government of Nicolás Maduro.

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He was one of the districts most punished by the FAES, special forces of action of the Bolivarian National Police, elite group endowed with a very high military training and intended to fight crime, but dedicated for a few months to sow terror in the murders and arrests, seeking to appease popular protests against the regime.

"Before there was noise, party, rumba, all the time, now there is only silence, you have to arrive early at home and keep up until the next day," Clarin says. Lisbeth, dull eyes of worry and work.

Young mother of two young children, she gets up every day at six o'clock and goes down to Caracas to serve in a "plugged in" fashion restaurant, businessmen and officials who represent the new oligarchy of power . "They went to neighborhoods, they broke doors, windows, they killed people," Lisbeth said. His tender gaze contrasts with the history of violence. When he talks about "they", he refers to FAES, the group most feared by Venezuelans. The popular nickname describes them with precision: "The executioners of Maduro".

"The leading role that FAES has played as a result of the slowing down of the terrible People's Liberation Campaign campaign – a police protest initiated in 2015 by Maduro in response to the increase in crime – has been The whole rationality and deadly practice of these militarized police operations now monopolize the FAES, "he explains. Clarin Keymer Ávila, researcher at the Institute of Criminal Sciences of the Central University of Venezuela. Petare is one of the most punished neighborhoods.

Most members of this force occur during the night or at dawn. "The logic is the military takeover of neighborhoods as if it was an enemy territory where the FAES acts as an occupation army and generally" chases "their objectives, explains the specialist.

A report from the NGO Provea reveals that troops from this squadron "were responsible for the murder of at least 205 Venezuelans in 2018". They were also the executors of most of the 39 youths killed during the January protests.

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"The stories of witnesses and parents are terrible; executions, false positives, simulations of confrontations, subsequent intimidations of parents and neighbors so that they do not denounce, followed by a long and dramatic etc. ", says Avila, professor of criminology.

José Vicente Rangel, former Vice President of the Republic and former Minister of Defense in Chavismo, said that "FAES operate in working-clbad neighborhoods with black uniforms and sophisticated combat equipment."

Welmer is a construction worker in Catia, west of Caracas, another neighborhood punished by FAES. There, they do so in complicity with the "collective" groups of shock of Chavismo. "Yes, you see them when they arrive, all armed, their faces covered with hoods … they want, they kill you there and nothing happens," he says.

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Until the middle of 2018, the regime used the intelligence services (SEBIN) to investigate and arrest the leaders of the demonstrations. But gradually the FAES moved them, with more sinister methods. "In this country, there is a total institutional deregulation of the activity of the executive power.This deregulation cascades on the military and police apparatuses which constitute, in their turn, fundamental tools of its support. The executive no longer controls the military or police apparatus, among them there are only mutually beneficial relationships that revolve around private interests, "Avila explains.

Accused, with a disintegrated power, the madurismo has more and more recourse to this special group to stop the wave of demonstrations. Of course, the price is high. "The bulla and the rumba have ended, Lisbeth sentence, with a resigned soul.