Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Venezuela.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Venezuela. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Venezuela U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/venezuela/
[accessed 12 August
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT Press and NGOs
reported that beatings and humiliating treatment of suspects during arrests
were common and involved various law enforcement agencies and the military
controlled by the illegitimate Maduro regime. Torture and other cruel,
inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of prisoners
were also reported during the year. Regime-aligned authorities
reportedly subjected detainees to asphyxiation, electric shock, broken bones,
being hung by their limbs, and being forced to spend hours on their knees.
Detainees were also subjected to cold temperatures, sensory deprivation, and
sleep deprivation; remained handcuffed for extended periods of time; and
received death threats to themselves and their relatives. Detainees reported
regime-aligned security forces moved them from detention centers to houses
and other clandestine locations where abuse took place. Cruel treatment
frequently involved illegitimate regime authorities denying prisoners medical
care and holding them for long periods in solitary confinement. The latter
practice was most prevalent with political prisoners. NGOs detailed reports
from detainees who were victims of sexual and gender-based violence by
regime-aligned authorities. The FFM found that regime-aligned security
forces, specifically the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) and
DGCIM, subjected detainees to torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading
treatment, and that high-level regime officials committed, ordered, or
contributed to the abuses or were aware of their activities and failed to
prevent or stop them. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Most prison
conditions were harsh and life threatening due to gross overcrowding, food shortages,
inadequate sanitary conditions and medical care, systemic violence, and poor
infrastructure. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Despite
constitutional protections that provide for timely trials, judges reportedly
scheduled initial hearings months after the events that led to the detention.
Proceedings were often deferred or suspended when an officer of the court,
such as the prosecutor, public defender, or judge, failed to attend.
Prisoners reported to NGOs that a lack of transportation and disorganization
in the prison system reduced their access to the courts and contributed to
trial delays. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/venezuela/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 16 May
2020] F3. IS THERE
PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR
AND INSURGENCIES? Prison conditions
in Venezuela remain among the worst in the Americas. Pranes,
or gang leaders who operate from prisons, freely coordinate criminal networks
throughout Venezuela. The police and
military have been prone to corruption, torture, and extrajudicial killings.
The OHCHR, in its July 2019 report on Venezuela, said there had been at least
2,124 deaths during security operations in the first five months of 2019. It
further asked the government to dissolve the special forces unit known as
FAES, whose members, it said, stand accused of a “shockingly high” number of
extrajudicial executions during security operations. NGO
Reports Widespread Torture in ‘Open-Air Concentration Camp’ Venezuela Frances Martel, Breitbar News, 28 Nov 2018 [accessed 1 December
2018] Suju revealed that her group
had confirmed at least 106 cases of torture, 61.3 percent against members of
the military. Last year, the same report found that a majority of the
incidents of torture documented were against civilians. Among the types of
torture on record were “electrocution, drowning, and asphyxia.” Six of the
cases mentioned also involved rape by members of state security. Suju went into explicit
detail about some of the torture, particularly electroshock. In one case, she
told the OAS, one of the victims was electrocuted through their underarms,
causing the person’s toenails to explode. Saleh says he saw
regular beatings in the Helicoide, people
“crucified” as a form of torture, and prisoners forced to attack each other.
In the “tomb,” torturers would reportedly draw significant blood from a
political prisoner before interrogation to make them lightheaded or force
them into stress positions for up to a week without being allowed to move. Nicolas
Maduro’s Venezuela: How Freed Activist Endured 4 Years Inside Brutal Torture
Chambers Robert Valencia,
Newsweek, 16 November 2018 www.newsweek.com/lorent-saleh-venezuela-maduro-torture-chavez-prison-1219580 [accessed 21 November
2018] Let’s talk about
what you endured in prison -- El Helicoide is an
overcrowded, old building where you find murderers, bankers, entrepreneurs,
drug traffickers and a large group of political prisoners. It is controlled
by Venezuelan intelligence and is more violent. It is the epitome of physical
torture and sadism. On the other hand,
La Tumba is a modern and sophisticated place
located underground. It has a glaring white light and is a low-temperature laboratory
that looks more like a madhouse because it’s used for psychological torture.
Prisoners live under 24-hour surveillance, and there’s absolutely no
communication with anybody. You can feel the state’s sheer oppression; you
don’t know what time it is because it doesn’t exist there, and you lose the
notion of everything. Accounts
of brutal torture further isolate Venezuela. But we need justice Diego Scharifker, student leader from Caracas, Washington Post,
6 June 2018 [accessed 6 June
2018] Efraín Ortega, a
42-year-old with a college degree in administration and computer science, was
unlawfully detained in Caracas on July 24, 2014. He was tortured and beaten,
his body taped with cardboard and newspapers to avoid leaving marks. He was
later handcuffed with his arms behind his back and hung until his shoulders
gave up. He was finally released on Oct. 6, 2017, after his preliminary
hearing was postponed 20 times. The
international community wakes up to torture in Venezuela Francisco Toro,
Democracy Post, 8 February 2018 [accessed 12
February 2018] The ICC is specifically
responding to accounts compiled by human rights organizations, which are in
turn based on firsthand testimony from former detainees. The stories sound
like something out of the darkest times in Latin America’s dark past. They
tell of the arrests of hundreds of political dissidents who have endured
severe beatings, stress positions, sleep deprivation and electric shocks —
all for the “crime” of disagreeing with the government. They tell of people
jailed for exercising their basic rights to protest, deprived of even the
bare minimum of due process. Of people tear-gassed in confined spaces, or
forced to eat food containing insects, or cigarette ash, or feces. Of
detainees sexually abused or raped. The testimony
documenting these abuses was collected over several months by Human Rights
Watch EU
blacklists top Venezuelan officials over torture, rights abuses Channel NewsAsia CNA, Brussels, 22 Jan 2018 www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/eu-blacklists-top-venezuelan-officials-over-torture--rights-abuses-9884866 [accessed 22 January
2018] www.france24.com/en/20180122-eu-blacklists-top-venezuelan-officials-over-torture-rights-abuses [accessed 20 January
2019] The European Union
on Monday (Jan 22) blacklisted seven senior Venezuelan officials over human
rights violations, including the regime's intelligence chief, who the bloc
accused of torture. The official
notification of the sanctions said intelligence chief Gustavo Gonzalez Lopez
was responsible for "serious human rights violations including arbitrary
detention, inhuman and degrading treatment, and torture". Venezuela’s
Brutal Crime Crackdown: Executions, Machetes and 8,292 Dead Juan Forero & Maolis Castro
(Photographs by Fabiola Ferrero), Wall Street Journal, Barlovento,
20 Dec 2017 www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelas-brutal-crime-crackdown-executions-machetes-and-8-292-dead-1513792219 [accessed 20
December 2017] Beleaguered regime
kills guilty and innocent alike in poor barrios, often with shots to the
heart The young men had
already been tortured at an army base when soldiers piled them into two jeeps
and transported them to a wooded area just outside the Venezuelan
capital. Stumbling in the dark, with
T-shirts pulled over their faces and hands tied behind their backs, they were
steered to an open pit. Soldiers then used machetes to deliver blow after
blow to the base of their necks. Most suffered gaping wounds that killed them
before they hit the ground. Others,
bleeding profusely but still alive, crumpled into the shallow grave as their
killers piled dirt over their bodies to hide the crime. “We think they were alive a good while as
they died from asphyxia,” said Zair Mundaray, a veteran prosecutor who led the exhumation and
investigation that pieced together how the killings unfolded. “It had to be a
terrible thing.” An independent
Caracas human-rights group, Families of Victims Committee, or Cofavic, tallied 6,385 extrajudicial executions from 2012
through the first three months of this year, what it calls social cleansing
operations by state forces in which all the deaths were legally unwarranted,
the group says. Rights
Group Accuses Venezuela of 'Systematic' Torture of Political Opponents Sputnik
International, 30 November 2017 [accessed 3 December
2017] Human Rights Watch
has released a 62-page report, “Crackdown on Dissent: Brutality, Torture, and
Political Persecution in Venezuela,” that accuses Caracas of severe human
rights violations against anti-government protesters and political opponents.
The report was compiled in collaboration with Penal Forum, a Venezuelan human
rights group. Eighty-eight cases
of abuse against 314 people have been reported by HRW. Reportedly, detainees
have been tortured with electric shocks, asphyxiation, teargassing,
starvation and dehydration, forced feeding of food "deliberately tainted
with excrement, cigarette ashes, or insects," as well as rape and sexual
assault. HRW wrote that the aim of this torment "was not to enforce the
law or disperse protests but rather to punish people for their perceived
political views." Torture
in Venezuela International
Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (irct) Developed in
collaboration with Red de Apoyo por
la Justicia y la Paz, October 2014 www.irct.org/Admin/Public/DWSDownload.aspx?File=%2fFiles%2fFiler%2fpublications%2fCountry+factsheets%2fCF+Venezuela+-+PUBLIC+EDIT+pdf.pdf [accessed 23 June
2015] Torture is a common
practice in Venezuela among law enforcement agents as well as within the
penal system. It has become an institutionalized practice as a result of an
authoritarian policing model which legitimises law
enforcement through physical punishment. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] VENEZUELA IMPUNITY OF ABUSES
OF SECURITY FORCES
- As of November, prosecutors had received 242 complaints of alleged human
rights violations committed during the 2014 protests, including only two
cases of torture. According to the Attorney General’s Office, prosecutors had
concluded 125 investigations, bringing charges against 15 members of public
security forces. Official sources reported that two police officials were
convicted for “events occurred in Anzoátegui” but provided no additional
information on the case nor the convictions. Killings by
security forces are a chronic problem in Venezuela. In October, members of
the Scientific, Penal, and Criminal Investigative Police killed five
civilians during a search in the building of a pro-government group in
Caracas. The Attorney General’s Office issued arrest warrants against seven
officers, who, according to official news accounts, remained at large at time
of writing. According to the most recent official statistics, law enforcement
agents allegedly killed 7,998 people between January 2000 and March 2009.
Impunity for these crimes remains the norm. UN Committee
against Torture’s Concluding Observations on Sweden, Ukraine, Venezuela, Australia,
Burundi, USA, Croatia and Kazakhstan Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights OHCHR, Geneva, 24 November 2014 www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15336&LangID=E [accessed 7 December
2014] The UN Committee
against Torture will be holding a news conference to discuss the concluding
observations of its 53rd session ... Among the issues discussed during the
session: VENEZUELA: Large number of
detentions; allegations of torture and ill-treatment of people detained after
demonstrations February-July 2014; military participation in halting
demonstrations and attacks allegedly committed by pro-government armed
groups; attacks on and intimidation against human rights defenders;
independence of the judiciary; the case of judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni. UN questions
Venezuela over alleged cases of torture against dissenters El Universal, 6
November 2014 -- Translated by Andreína Trujillo www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/141106/un-questions-venezuela-over-alleged-cases-of-torture-against-dissenter [accessed 29
November 2014] Jens Modvig, rapporteur of the report about Venezuela, refuted
such statement. "There are allegations that during the February
disturbances there were over 3,000 detentions, and that those people were
stripped naked, threatened with raping, they were not allowed to receive
medical care or to call a lawyer or their family, plus other allegations of
torture. What measures were applied to prevent torture?" he asked. Another expert,
Felice Gaer, recalled that "only 12 public
officials have been convicted for human right violations over the last
decade, even though there have been more than 5,000 complaints." Modvig also called into
question the fact that the National Committee for Torture Prevention is not
detached from the government, as almost half of its members are
representatives of the Venezuelan Executive Office. Venezuela probes 97
security troops for torture Agence France-Presse AFP, Caracas, 14 April 2014 www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/world/04/13/14/venezuela-probes-97-security-troops-torture [accessed 20 April
2014] Venezuela is
investigating nearly 100 armed forces and police staff for alleged torture
during more than two months of ongoing deadly anti-government protests,
authorities said Sunday. The
military's strategic command chief Vladimir Padrino
admitted that security forces had committed "excesses" in recent
days. "We are able to say that 97
are being investigated by prosecutors for cruelty, for torture," he told
Venevision television. Nearly daily
protests began in early February against rampant street crime, soaring
inflation, poor job prospects and shortages of such essential goods as milk
and toilet paper. They have left 41
dead and more than 650 wounded, and prompted accusations of human rights
violations by police. Amnesty Reports
Dozens of Venezuela Torture Accounts Nathan Crooks and
Corina Pons, Bloomberg News, 1 April 2014 www.businessweek.com/news/2014-04-01/amnesty-reports-receiving-dozens-of-venezuela-torture-accounts [accessed 3 April
2014] www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-04-01/amnesty-reports-dozens-of-venezuela-torture-accounts [accessed 4 January
2018] Amnesty
International has received dozens of accounts of torture allegedly carried
out by government security forces in Venezuela since protests that have left
at least 37 dead broke out in February. “We’ve received
reports from detainees who were forced to spend hours on their knees or feet
in detention centers,” Amnesty wrote in a report, adding that other Venezuelans
said they suffered sexual abuse and threats of murder. “Inhuman and degrading
treatment inflicted on detainees appears to be intended to punish them for
their involvement, or suspected involvement, in the protests,” Amnesty said. Claims of disappearance
of minor tortured in Mérida -- Attorney Genis
Navarro accuses local police of torture Roberto Giusti, El Universal, 15 March 2014 english.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/140315/claims-of-disappearance-of-minor-tortured-in-merida [accessed 17 March
2014] www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/140315/claims-of-disappearance-of-minor-tortured-in-merida [accessed 9 August
2017] They have attested
in court that they were intercepted by hooded agents of Mérida police, who
put them on their knees, shot pellets all over their bodies and put them into
an armored vehicle, where there was another group, also hooded. The boys tell
that some of these individuals had a Cuban accent. Once inside the vehicle,
they were battered. Later on, they were taken to the police detention center.
There, they were taken their clothes off and put against the wall; marbles
were shot at them. One of the adolescents related that they were forced to
take their tongue out and their heads were hit for them to bite their
tongues. Hell Holes:
Torture, starvation and murder the norm at world’s worst gulags Perry Chiaramonte, Fox News, 1 March 2013 [accessed 2 March
2013] LA SABANETA,
VENEZUELA
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called it “the gateway to the fifth circle
of hell.” At La Sabaneta prison, some 30,000
inmates live in a facility meant for 15,000. There's just one guard for every
150 prisoners, and gun-toting gangs led by "pranes"
run protection rackets. Poor inmates pay them for everything from a place to
sleep to protection from murder. At the low-end of
the inmate hierarchy, are los anegados,
or "the unwanted ones." These prisoners have recently taken to
stitching their mouths shut, taking literally the longstanding La Sabaneta code that says, “When one sews his own lips, no
one can kill him.” And inmates do get killed, with shocking frequency. In
1994, 130 La Sabaneta inmates were burned or
slashed to death with machetes during a gang fight. The following year, more
than 200 inmates died in other incidents and another 624 were severely
injured. Cases of police
torture heighten by 10 percent in Venezuela Juan Francisco
Alonso, El Universal, Caracas, 17 August 2009
-- Translated by Conchita Delgado www.eluniversal.com/2009/08/17/en_pol_esp_cases-of-police-tort_17A2625885 [accessed 13 Feb
2014] diplodemocracia.blogspot.com/2009/08/cases-of-police-torture-heighten-by-10.html [accessed 31 August
2016] POLITICS - Torture continues
being a customary practice for some Venezuelan police agents, as disclosed by
the 2008 annual report from the Ombudsman. The organization
responsible for enforcing human rights in the country estimated a hike of
10.34 percent in the number of people mistreated by the authorities. Based on the report
submitted last week to the National Assembly (AN) by Ombudsman Gabriela Ramírez, 87 complaints of torture were filed at the
agency, compared with 78 in 2007. The events included 66 cases of physical
assailment and 21 cases of psychological abuse. The Ombudsman noted
that the Scientific, Penal and Criminology Investigation Agency (Cicpc) continues being the main target of the complaints.
This has been the case for several years. Ramírez recalled that the Cicpc is responsible for investigating crimes. Therefore,
she did not hesitate to say: "Torture is presumed to continue forming
part of the techniques used by some officials of this police body to get
testimony, confession or any information that helps clarify the case under
investigation." Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/CR/29/2
(2002) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/venezuela2002.html [accessed 12 March
2013] 10. The
Committee expresses its concern at the following: (a) The failure,
despite the extensive legal reforms undertaken by the State party, to
classify torture as a specific offence in Venezuelan legislation, in
accordance with the definition in article 1 of the Convention; (b) The numerous
complaints of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, abuse of
authority and arbitrary acts committed by agents of State security bodies
which render inoperative the protective provisions of the Constitution and
the Code of Criminal Procedure; (c) Complaints of
abuse of power and improper use of force as a means of control, particularly
during demonstrations and protests; (d) Complaints of
threats and attacks against sexual minorities and transgender activists,
particularly in the State of Carabobo; (e) Information on threats
to and harassment of persons who bring complaints of ill-treatment against
police officers and the lack of adequate protection for witnesses and
victims; (f) The absence of
prompt and impartial investigations of complaints of torture and cruel, inhuman
and degrading treatment, and the lack of an accessible, institutionalized
procedure in order to ensure the right of victims of acts of torture to
obtain redress and fair and adequate compensation, as article 14 of the
Convention provides; (g) The numerous
instances in prisons of prisoner-on-prisoner violence and violence against
prisoners by prison officers, which have led to serious injuries and in some
cases to death. The precarious material conditions in prisons are also a
matter for concern; (h) The lack of
information, including statistical data, on torture and cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment, broken down by nationality, gender, ethnic
group, geographical location and type and place of detention. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61745.htm [accessed 17
February 2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61745.htm [accessed 7 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – Although the law
prohibits such practices, NGOs, media, and opposition groups accused security
forces of continuing to torture and abuse detainees. Abuse most commonly
consisted of beatings during arrest or interrogation, but there also were
incidents in which the security forces used near-suffocation and other forms
of torture. PROVEA reported
that between October 2004 and September, it received 31 complaints of torture
and 503 complaints regarding cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. From
January to June, Red de Apoyo received 10 complaints
from alleged torture victims. There were no arrests associated with these
cases. The government did
not authorize independent investigation of torture complaints. Human rights
groups continued to question the attorney general's ability to oversee neutral
investigations as an active member of the president's political party and a
former vice president in the government. Groups also asserted that the
Institute of Forensic Medicine, part of the CICPC, was unlikely to be
impartial in the examinations of cases that involved torture by CICPC
members. Few cases of torture resulted in convictions. Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 4 Civil Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/venezuela [accessed 17
February 2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] With over 50
homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, Venezuela’s murder rate is now one of the world’s highest. In this environment of rising crime, the
police and military have been prone to corruption, widespread arbitrary
detention and torture of suspects, and extrajudicial killings, according to both
Provea’s and the Public Ministry’s own reports.
Such abuses are generally committed with impunity; although hundreds of
police are investigated each year, few are convicted. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century- Venezuela
", http://gvnet.com/torture/Venezuela.htm, [accessed <date>] |
