Post by Bozur on Mar 2, 2005 16:58:59 GMT -5
World - AP
Vigilante Killings Probed in Venezuela
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press Writer
CARACAS, Venezuela - The bodies were battered, partly burned or riddled with bullets. Nearly three dozen — discovered alongside highways or dropped off at hospitals by police officers — were found in the small towns and farmlands of central Venezuela.
The authorities say the victims were criminals who died in fights and shootouts or young men who committed suicide. But human rights activists and lawmakers who are investigating told The Associated Press the victims appear to have been murdered by a vigilante death squad organized by police.
Government investigators plan to start digging up some of the bodies in early March to carry out forensic tests.
The bodies of at least 34 men found in Venezuela's central Guarico state in the past three years had burns, bruises and cuts suggesting they were tortured before being executed, said Oscar Cedeno, director of the Guarico Human Rights Commission.
He said he has received more than 100 complaints from victims' families and witnesses who claim a secret police squad and its accomplices are responsible for a wave of beatings, torture and killings.
"There is no doubt that something horrible happened here," Cedeno said.
A congressional committee has begun questioning Guarico state Gov. Eduardo Manuitt and members of a special police squad known as the Intervention and Support Brigade, or BIA, after its initials in Spanish.
According to witnesses interviewed by Cedeno, members of the brigade often wore ski masks and camouflage fatigues lacking badges or name tags. They used death threats in an attempt to silence fellow police officers, witnesses, prosecutors and judges, Cedeno said.
"Many people here are scared. That's why few of them have spoken out," Cedeno said.
Nevertheless, relatives of several alleged victims are speaking out, including the mother of Jose Rafael Saa, whose body had 18 gunshot wounds when police dropped him off at a hospital on June 5, 2002.
Rosa Isabel Saa doesn't believe the police account that her son was involved in a robbery and later killed by fellow thieves who escaped with the loot.
"They said he was involved in robberies, but that's a lie," she said. "My son was not a thief. I'm sure the police killed him."
Saa lived in Valle de la Pascua, a quiet country town about 100 miles southeast of Caracas where crime is sporadic compared with Venezuela's overpopulated cities.
Other suspected victims include Arturo Hernandez, a Spaniard who lived in Venezuela for three decades and, according to witnesses, was shot in April by members of the police squad, said Nicolas Sosa, an investigating lawmaker who heads the National Assembly's Interior Affairs Committee.
The state governor, Manuitt, denied any knowledge of abuses by police but did not rule out the possibility that some police may have been involved.
"I'm willing to participate in any investigation, and if any police officer is involved in any criminal activity he will be punished," Manuitt told the state-run Bolivarian News Agency after one congressional hearing in early February.
Manuitt said most of the alleged victims actually died because they were involved in crime and initiated violent confrontations with police.
"A high percentage of these (people) died in clashes with security forces," said Manuitt, adding that others listed as purported victims died in shootouts with rival criminals or committed suicide.
Manuitt and the Guarico police did not respond to repeated requests from the AP for comment.
Lawmaker Iris Varela said federal agents who raided the police squad's headquarters on Feb. 12 found automatic weapons and Glock handguns that had serial numbers scratched out.
Cedeno said some of the victims may have had criminal records or troubles with the police — but nothing to justify their slayings.
Venezuelan police often complain that they are outgunned by criminals, and murder is a common crime. The Venezuelan Program of Education and Action in Human Rights recorded 11,037 homicides in this country of 25 million people in 2003, the last year for which complete figures are available.
Accusations of extrajudicial killings by police are common in Venezuela, just as in countries across the Americas, from Jamaica to Brazil. A U.S. State Department report last year alleged that populist President Hugo Chavez's rule was marred by police and soldiers committing extrajudicial killings and police with reported links to vigilante death squads.
Resident Liliana Arevelo said she is sure members of the police squad killed her brother, Hermes Agustin Arevelo, because he had mentioned several times paying off police who demanded bribes. She said agents came looking for her brother early last year and — when they found he wasn't home — told her he had better pay up. Then he disappeared.
Arevelo said she remembers how police came to her door and told her, "'We found your brother — but his head has been blown off.'"
"I don't believe in justice anymore," she said. "It has been absent here for too long."
Vigilante Killings Probed in Venezuela
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press Writer
CARACAS, Venezuela - The bodies were battered, partly burned or riddled with bullets. Nearly three dozen — discovered alongside highways or dropped off at hospitals by police officers — were found in the small towns and farmlands of central Venezuela.
The authorities say the victims were criminals who died in fights and shootouts or young men who committed suicide. But human rights activists and lawmakers who are investigating told The Associated Press the victims appear to have been murdered by a vigilante death squad organized by police.
Government investigators plan to start digging up some of the bodies in early March to carry out forensic tests.
The bodies of at least 34 men found in Venezuela's central Guarico state in the past three years had burns, bruises and cuts suggesting they were tortured before being executed, said Oscar Cedeno, director of the Guarico Human Rights Commission.
He said he has received more than 100 complaints from victims' families and witnesses who claim a secret police squad and its accomplices are responsible for a wave of beatings, torture and killings.
"There is no doubt that something horrible happened here," Cedeno said.
A congressional committee has begun questioning Guarico state Gov. Eduardo Manuitt and members of a special police squad known as the Intervention and Support Brigade, or BIA, after its initials in Spanish.
According to witnesses interviewed by Cedeno, members of the brigade often wore ski masks and camouflage fatigues lacking badges or name tags. They used death threats in an attempt to silence fellow police officers, witnesses, prosecutors and judges, Cedeno said.
"Many people here are scared. That's why few of them have spoken out," Cedeno said.
Nevertheless, relatives of several alleged victims are speaking out, including the mother of Jose Rafael Saa, whose body had 18 gunshot wounds when police dropped him off at a hospital on June 5, 2002.
Rosa Isabel Saa doesn't believe the police account that her son was involved in a robbery and later killed by fellow thieves who escaped with the loot.
"They said he was involved in robberies, but that's a lie," she said. "My son was not a thief. I'm sure the police killed him."
Saa lived in Valle de la Pascua, a quiet country town about 100 miles southeast of Caracas where crime is sporadic compared with Venezuela's overpopulated cities.
Other suspected victims include Arturo Hernandez, a Spaniard who lived in Venezuela for three decades and, according to witnesses, was shot in April by members of the police squad, said Nicolas Sosa, an investigating lawmaker who heads the National Assembly's Interior Affairs Committee.
The state governor, Manuitt, denied any knowledge of abuses by police but did not rule out the possibility that some police may have been involved.
"I'm willing to participate in any investigation, and if any police officer is involved in any criminal activity he will be punished," Manuitt told the state-run Bolivarian News Agency after one congressional hearing in early February.
Manuitt said most of the alleged victims actually died because they were involved in crime and initiated violent confrontations with police.
"A high percentage of these (people) died in clashes with security forces," said Manuitt, adding that others listed as purported victims died in shootouts with rival criminals or committed suicide.
Manuitt and the Guarico police did not respond to repeated requests from the AP for comment.
Lawmaker Iris Varela said federal agents who raided the police squad's headquarters on Feb. 12 found automatic weapons and Glock handguns that had serial numbers scratched out.
Cedeno said some of the victims may have had criminal records or troubles with the police — but nothing to justify their slayings.
Venezuelan police often complain that they are outgunned by criminals, and murder is a common crime. The Venezuelan Program of Education and Action in Human Rights recorded 11,037 homicides in this country of 25 million people in 2003, the last year for which complete figures are available.
Accusations of extrajudicial killings by police are common in Venezuela, just as in countries across the Americas, from Jamaica to Brazil. A U.S. State Department report last year alleged that populist President Hugo Chavez's rule was marred by police and soldiers committing extrajudicial killings and police with reported links to vigilante death squads.
Resident Liliana Arevelo said she is sure members of the police squad killed her brother, Hermes Agustin Arevelo, because he had mentioned several times paying off police who demanded bribes. She said agents came looking for her brother early last year and — when they found he wasn't home — told her he had better pay up. Then he disappeared.
Arevelo said she remembers how police came to her door and told her, "'We found your brother — but his head has been blown off.'"
"I don't believe in justice anymore," she said. "It has been absent here for too long."