Venezuelan NGO denounces impunity for the “execution” of 23 people a year ago

The NGO Program Venezuelan of Education-Action in Human Rights (Provea) denounced this Saturday the impunity that persists in the case of the alleged “extrajudicial execution” of 23 civilians in a police operation carried out a year ago in the La Vega area, west of Caracas.

“The inhabitants of La Vega are still waiting for an investigation in the midst of homelessness and structural impunity. For its part, the State maintains its repressive logic on the communities, ”said the NGO in a report prepared in conjunction with the organization Centro Gumilla.

Provea recalled that one year has passed since these deaths in what he called “the La Vega massacre” and added that it was the police and military operation in which “State security forces have caused the greatest number of murders in one single incursion, at least in the last 50 years ”.

“Almost all of the 23 victims were first arrested and later murdered in front of their relatives or in places close to the places where they were detained,” Provea denounced.

He added that, although some of the officials who participated in the operation and who “may be responsible for the crimes perpetrated” have been identified, after one year of the events, they have not been held accountable to Justice.

Likewise, he denounced the “silence” of the Public Ministry and the Office of the Ombudsman of Venezuela, organizations that to date “have not opened any known investigation” into these events.

The NGOs call on the Venezuelan authorities to investigate the perpetrators and the chain of command with responsibility for the crimes perpetrated in “the La Vega massacre,” in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Government of Venezuela and the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

In February 2021, Amnesty International (AI) referred to the deaths of at least 14 men in this police operation in the La Vega area and considered them “probable extrajudicial executions”.

The officials deployed, AI said in a statement, included the Special Action Forces (FAES) and other bodies of the Bolivarian National Police, “questioned in the past by the systematic extrajudicial executions of young men living in poverty.”

“At least 14 people died during the operation”, with complaints “of another 10 fatalities” from the police actions. Two of the victims were “17-year-old adolescents,” according to the statement.

The International Criminal Court has kept an investigation open for alleged crimes against humanity in Venezuela since last November 3, when the prosecutor Karim Khan made the announcement during an official visit to Caracas.