Amnesty International: Venezuela: Protesters detained, at risk of ill-treatment

Urgent Action from Amnesty International

Carlin Rodriguez, age 19 shot in the jaw by police during nonviolent protest

Document - Venezuela: Protesters detained, at risk of ill-treatment

UA: 119/14 Index: AMR 53/013/2014 Venezuela Date: 9 May 2014

URGENT ACTION

protesters detained, at risk of ill-treatment

Security forces in Caracas detained 243 people involved in ongoing anti-government demonstrations between 7 and 8 May. The whereabouts of those who have not yet been released remain unknown. They are at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

Between 7 and 8 May security forces in the Chacao and Baruta Municipalities of Caracas, the capital, detained 243 people in four makeshift camps built as part of anti-government demonstrations that have been ongoing throughout the country since February 2014. Some of these 243 people have already been released, including some minors.

The relatives of those detained have expressed concern at the reports of excessive use of force by security forces in their operation to dismantle the four makeshift camps built by protesters. The relatives have also stated they have been unable to establish the exact whereabouts of their family members following the detention.

In the context of the ongoing protests in Venezuela, Amnesty International has received dozens of complaints about torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees by members of the security forces, at the time of detention, during transfer and at detention centres. The detainees’ safety and right to due process are at grave risk.

Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:

Calling on the authorities to make public the whereabouts of all detainees, and ensure they are protected from torture and other ill-treatment, are given immediate access to their lawyers, families, and any medical attention they may require;

Calling on them to either charge those detained with a recognisable offence or release them; to respect the right of all those charged with an offence to due process and urging the authorities to refrain from making statements that undermine the presumption of innocence;
Acknowledging that the state has a duty to maintain public order, and reminding the authorities that they must respect human rights, must not use excessive force, and must ensure that the right to freedom of expression, association and assembly are respected.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 20 JUNE 2014 TO:

Minister of Justice and Interior

Gral. Miguel Rodríguez Torres

Ministerio del Poder Popular para Relaciones Interiores, Justicia y Paz

Av. Urdaneta, Edificio Interior y Justicia Caracas, Venezuela

Fax: +58 212 506 1685

Email: asistenciadirecta3@gmail.com

Salutation: Señor Ministro/

Dear Minister

Attorney General of the Republic

Dra. Luisa Ortega Díaz

Edificio Sede Principal del Ministerio Público, Esquinas de Misericordia a Pele El Ojo Avenida México

Caracas, Venezuela

Email: ministeriopublico@mp.gob.ve

Fax: +58 212 578 3239

 Salutation: Dra. Fiscal / Dear Prosecutor

And copies to:

Amnistía Internacional Venezuela Av la Salle, Torre Phelps, piso 17, Oficina 17A

Plaza Venezuela, Los Caobos, Caracas 1050 Venezuela

Fax: +58 212 793 1318 ext. 116

Email: info@aiven.org

URGENT ACTION

protesters detained, at risk of ill-treatment

ADditional Information

Since the beginning of February 2014, Venezuela has been shaken by mass protests for and against the government in various parts of the country. The unrest has already resulted in the death of over 41 people, including at least six members of the security forces. More than 650 people have been injured and over 2,000 have been detained. Most people arrested have been conditionally released pending investigations but they face charges that could lead to years in prison.

There are indications of excessive use of force by the security forces, as well as reports of violence by armed pro government groups and by anti-government protesters. Amnesty International has received dozens of complaints about torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees by members of the security forces, at the time of detention, during transfer and at detention centres. The aim of the cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees appears to have been to punish them for their participation, or alleged participation in the protests. Among the complaints received are cases of beatings by members of the security forces, who allegedly punched, kicked and hit detainees with blunt objects, such as helmets, including when detainees were being restrained on the ground at the time of detention.

The organization has also received complaints from detainees who were allegedly forced to kneel or stand for long periods at detention centres, subjected to sexual abuse or threatened with rape. Other reports indicate that some were threatened with death, and in one case, officer’s allegedly poured petrol onto a young detainee.

Detainees were not given medical examinations on arrival at detention centres and, in some cases, did not receive medical attention until they were brought before a judge, despite evident wounds from rubber pellets or bullets. The right of detainees to be examined by a doctor and receive medical treatment whenever necessary is a safeguard against torture and ill-treatment, and an integral part of the authorities’ duty to guarantee respect for the integrity and dignity of the individual.

Name: 243 people detained in Caracas
Gender m/f: both

UA: 119/14 Index: AMR 53/013/2014 Issue Date: 9 May 2014

Taken from this link

March 24 is the International Day for the Right to the Truth: Help Venezuela

"I have frequently been threatened with death I must tell you that as a Christian, I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will be resurrected in the Salvadoran people." - Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez

"Truth never damages a cause that is just." - Mohandas Gandhi

13 of the 37 killed in Venezuela since February 12 in protests

 The body count continues to rise in Venezuela along with the charges and counter-charges between the government of Maduro, opposition political parties and a democratic resistance led by university students. The United Nations recognizes March 24 as the International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. This day is set aside in rememberance of El Salvador's Archbishop Romero assassinated on March 24, 1980. Today is also an important day to remember victims of political violence such as Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, Harold Cepero Escalante murdered in Cuba on July 22, 2012 and the Venezuelans killed since February 12, 2014. According to DeutscheWelle: "Venezuela's national guard has been firing tear gas and live ammunition at demonstrators. Protestors resort to stones and the burning of cars." The national guard has also raided the home of journalists, detaining them and searched through their belongings as was the case with Mildred Manrique. 



The great English writer and poet Samuel Johnson observed that "Among the calamities of war may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages." There is a fog of war in which rumors take on a life of their own and need to be put down with the slower moving facts, but then there is also propaganda, ( information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view). An extreme example of this was on display in print and in television with Mark Weisbrot, and Oliver Stone in the Boston Globe.

Mark Weisbrot in a February 20, 2014 interview with Abby Martin on RT's "Breaking the Set" claimed at 20 minutes and 58 seconds that the protests "started out from the beginning demanding that the president resign." That statement is a lie. The protests initially were not about Maduro. What sparked this round of demonstrations began in Táchira on February 4, 2014 when a student at the University of Los Andes in the Botanical Garden of the University was the victim of an attempted rape. Students protested that "insecurity had taken over the campus." The protest was repressed and a number of students arrested and physically mistreated by the authorities. The news of the abuse by government officials sparked additional protests. 

However, if you read the February 10th open letter tweeted by student leader Juan Requesens, who has more than 528,000 followers the message is one that is open to dialogue with the government on two conditions 1) that students who were arrested exercising their legitimate right to protest be freed and 2) that calling them "coup plotters" or "terrorists" for engaging in nonviolent protests to demand their rights is unacceptable.

February 12 in Venezuela is a national youth day and students across the country organized nonviolent mass demonstrations in response to the earlier repression and were met with violence by regime officials working in coordination with paramilitary groups known as "colectivos." Students were shot in the head and killed. This escalated the protests and as the violence increased the demands expanded and began to focus on Maduro.

March 22, 2014 opposition protests

 The article also presents a false picture of the protests as "small groups of protesters [who] engage in nightly battles with security forces, throwing rocks and firebombs and running from tear gas"and contrasting it with the "... the crowd that showed up for the March 5 ceremonies to mark the anniversary of Chávez’s death, it was a sea of working-class Venezuelans, tens of thousands of them." The opposition to Maduro since February 12th has repeatedly mobilized tens of thousands of protesters from across Venezuela in anti-government protests. In this article there are photos of just three isolated pictures on three different dates with massive numbers of demonstrators.

March 2, 2014 opposition protests

Since February 12, 2014 tens of thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets to protest against the Maduro regime and its excesses. The response of the government: escalating violence and the use of snipers to shoot demonstrators in the head has driven the demands from issues of security and  concerns of scarcity into a call for his resignation.

February 12, 2014 opposition protests

Furthermore, the killings by snipers shooting demonstrators and passersby in the head along with the collaboration of the national guard with paramilitary units on motorcycles is reminiscent of the tactics used by the Iranians in crushing mass student protests in 2009. The targeting  and murder of young women by sniper fire was also a practice captured on video with the death of Neda Agha-Soltan that captured international attention in June of 2009 much the same way that  Génesis Carmona's murder did last month.  The role of the Cubans in the Venezuelan military and intelligence apparatus has been much commented on over the past month, but the relationship with Iran and the presence of Iranians in Venezuela has not drawn as much attention, but it should.

Weisbrot, who has collaborated with Chávez on initiatives such as the Bank of the South, in his Boston Globe piece writes about Washington "funding opposition groups" but doesn't touch on charges made by the Panamanian president that the Maduro government is funding the opposition in Panama. Weisbrot also fails to mention that Hugo Chávez engaged in a massive Chavista foreign aid program with ideological considerations for more than a decade:

 "began providing oil assistance to Cuba in 2000. In June 2005, he launched Petrocaribe to offer discounted oil to an expanding list of member nations. Currently, 19 Caribbean and Central American nations benefit from Petrocaribe. Members consume about 300,000 barrels per day, roughly 10 percent of Venezuela's daily output on concessionary terms. While payment terms vary according to rises and falls in the price of oil, the standard Petrocaribe mechanism requires payments of 40 to 50 percent in the first 90 days, and the balance over 20 years at 1 percent interest." 

 Weisbrot has made claims about the success of the Venezuelan government in reducing poverty rates that have been questioned for their veracity. Also not mentioned in Wesibrot's analysis of poverty reduction is that the region as a whole has achieved as much or more poverty reduction, then claimed by the Chavista's without the drastic measures that bode ill for Venezuela in the long run.

The victims and their loved ones have a right to the truth and while many remain silent or worse defend the Maduro regime as it murders unarmed demonstrators, people of good will need to help. Please share the video below in which a Venezuelan student explains the reasons for their protests.