Six months after Ch谩vez, military still plays strong role in Venezuela
| Caracas, Venezuela
鈥�听David Smilde is the moderator of WOLA's blog:听.听The views expressed are the author's own.
The Venezuelan military鈥檚 role as perpetrator of violence continues to make news. In a听听put out on Aug. 8, [Venezuelan] human rights group Provea pointed out that from May to July Venezeula鈥檚 armed forces were involved in at least 8 violations of the 鈥渢he right to life.鈥� In 2012, 164 people lost their lives at the hands of the military. Provea鈥檚 statistics are taken from Venezuela鈥檚 investigative police, the CICPC.
In a piece of news analysis called听听Venezuelan daily听El Universal听also noted the continual flow of incidents. The article describes the terror average citizens feel when passing through the military roadblocks manned by heavily armed but lightly trained soldiers, many of whom are barely twenty years old.
The situation has come to the fore since Nicol谩s Maduro has taken office because he has strongly reasserted the military鈥檚 role in citizen security.听听in our series on citizen security reform, in the past couple of years there has been a struggle within Venezuelan public administration between those who are pushing forward a progressive, civilian policing model, and those who seek to strengthen Venezuela鈥檚 traditional militarized policing strategies. During Maduro鈥檚 four months in office the latter has clearly gained the upper hand.
While Maduro mentioned and emphasized his support for the process of police reform听听and afterwards, his marquee initiative has been the Plan Patria Segura which puts military in the streets to fight crime (see our coverage听,听,听, and听). Personnel changes have worked in the same direction. In June human rights activist Pablo Fernandez was replaced as the head of the citizen security reform initiative called听and replaced by National Guard (GN) officer Ildemar Soto. In early August the human rights activist that has spearheaded the process of police reform since 2006, Soraya El Achkar, resigned as the head of the General Police Council. She remains the rector of the National Experimental Security University.
In what follows we present a chronology of alleged human rights violations committed by soldiers carrying out citizen security functions during July and August.
On July 4 National Guardsmen opened fire against a car that apparently ran a roadblock, killing an unarmed women and her daughter. Two other members of the family were wounded. The officers were apparently on the lookout for a car with similar characteristics and shot at the vehicle more than 50 times.听听that the officers did not ask the vehicle to stop but simply opened fire.听On Monday July 8, ten officers of the GN related to the incident听.听
On July 11 the local press reported the death of a man who was allegedly forced by soldiers to 鈥渄rink gasoline鈥� in T谩chira. A second person was taken to a local hospital with second degree burns from fuel exposure. The incident took place during an army raid on an illegal fuel deposit on the Colombian border.听,听18 people were working in the deposit when the raid started and the army officers made several of them dunk their heads into buckets of gasoline.听
On July 15 in Petare, Caracas, motorcyclist Rivera Calder贸n听. Neighbors from the barrio took to the street that same day to protest alleging that Rivera had been shot by a national guardsman after passing a checkpoint. Neighbors told reporters that they had been harassed by officers from the checkpoint in several occasions. One National Guardsman was arrested for the case.
On Aug. 9 Olivero Rojas, a law student form the听Universidad de Carabobo,听听to the neck. His family reported that Olivero was driving his car when he was asked to stop by officers inside an Army truck. Olivero did stop but officers opened fire against the car anyway. Six officers were arrested.
On Aug. 18听听while sleeping on the street in downtown Caracas. Witnesses from nearby buildings reported that National Guardsmen patrolling the Avenida Baralt shot them execution style. One witness declared that the officers were apparently frustrated because they had failed to find two delinquents they were looking for earlier.
鈥� 听David Smilde is the moderator of WOLA's blog:听.听
