UN accuses Venezuelan security forces of cover-ups over killings
Officers linked to about 500 suspect killings have been evading charges
security forces in Venezuela carry out unjustified killings without any apparent consequences as the rule of law in the country quickly vanishes, a United Nations report has charged.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said Venezuelan officers accused in some 500 questionable killings appear to be evading any charges.
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the high commissioner, said that was a sign checks and balances had been chiselled away, leaving state authorities unaccountable.
The report highlights a case early this year in which rebel police officer Oscar Perez and six in his group were shot to death as they tried to surrender. UN officials said they believed the group was executed on orders from top government officials in violation of their basic rights.
“The rule of law is virtually absent in Venezuela,” Mr Hussein said in the report. “The impunity must end.”
There was no immediate comment from the Venezuelan government on the report, which was released before dawn in the South American country.
Venezuela is in the grips of a deepening political and economic crisis marked by food and medicine shortages, as well as soaring inflation that has driven thousands to flee the country in search of a better life.
The government has drawn international condemnation since last year when officials loyal to socialist president Nicolas Maduro formed a constitutional assembly, robbing power from the democratic algovernment ly elected congress, which is controlled by the opposition.
The UN report looks at cases of excessive government force away from violent street protests against the government.
The document also cites examples of officials threatening or detaining health care workers for exposing the lack of medicine and poor conditions. The report said that between 2015 and last year, some 357 officers were placed under investigation stemming from 505 killings during supposed neighbourhood raids.
But Venezuela’s attorney general, who was critical of Maduro, was replaced in August last year and no more information about the prosecutions has become public, the report said. It added that evidence appears to have vanished from case files.
“The state appears neither able nor willing to prosecute serious human rights violations ,” Mr Hussein said, suggesting the international criminal Court play a deeper role.
Venezuelan officials, who often decry outside meddling in their affairs, did not allow UN officials into the country to compile its report, so investigators gathered information remotely and included interviews with victims, witnesses, lawyers and doctors.
The report sheds light on the death of Mr Perez, who was killed in January when government forces hunted his group down to a moun- tain hideout outside Caracas.
He had been Venezuela’s most-wanted fugitive after attacking government buildings in a stolen police helicopter.
The report says 400 officers armed with assault rifles and an anti-tank, rocket-propelled grenade launcher surrounded Mr Perez, who was seen on video calling to surrender.
Police later recovered from the house four rifles, a pistol and two hand grenades.
UN officials said their investigation leads them to believe officials who report directly to Mr Maduro executed the seven rebels in violation of their human rights and then destroyed evidence.
The US quit the UN Human Rights Council earlier this week, having previously criticised the body for failing to act against Venezuela.
Mr Hussein had also accused Venezuela of failing to acknowledge the depth of its crisis, with hundreds of thousands fleeing abroad.