Amnesty International Report 1994 - Venezuela

Dozens of people were detained for their non-violent political or social activities. Torture and ill-treatment were widespread and at least one death in custody as a result of torture was reported. Scores of people, including a three-year-old child, were killed by the security forces in suspicious circumstances; some may have been victims of extrajudicial executions. On 21 May, the Senate suspended President Carlos Andrés Pérez from office after the Supreme Court ruled that he should stand trial for alleged corruption. The Senate's President, Octavio Lapage, took over as Head of State until 5 June, when Ramón José Vel squez, a Senator, was elected by Congress as Venezuela's interim President until the end of the administration's term, in February 1994. Former President Rafael Caldera won presidential elections on 5 December. Scores of people were injured and at least one was killed when the security forces forcibly dispersed dozens of demonstrations - most of which were peaceful - held to protest against worsening economic conditions. In February Venezuela ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. Scores of people, including human rights activists, political activists and Catholic priests, were arrested. They included prisoners of conscience. Fernando Arias Figueroa, a human rights activist, and two student activists, Jorge Luis López Colmenares and Rafael Enrique Flores Farfán, were all arrested in February, the latter two without warrants by the Dirección de Inteligencia Militar (DIM), Directorate of Military Intelligence, in the town of Valencia. All three were tortured (see below) and charged under military jurisdiction with attempted murder, despite a lack of evidence to substantiate such a charge. The students were released on bail in October, but Fernando Arias Figueroa remained imprisoned at the end of the year. He had not been brought to trial. In March Mario Landino and seven other peasant activists, including Bari and Yucpa Indians, were detained by an army unit which raided their community of El Turpial, near the border with Colombia. The eight were reportedly arrested as a result of their peaceful activities on behalf of peasants' rights and were believed to be prisoners of conscience. Dozens of people, including at least 10 children, were beaten by soldiers during the raid and several houses were destroyed. Most of those detained were held incommunicado for several days and tortured before being released without charge. However, Mario Landino remained imprisoned under military jurisdiction at the end of the year. Those released subsequently received death threats. In November at least 40 political or community activists, including Noel Acosta, a candidate for Zulia State's Chamber of Deputies, and two Catholic priests, Father Adolfo Rojas Giménez and Father Oscar Freitez, were arrested without warrant by the army on suspicion of plotting against the government. Most of those arrested were released without charge shortly afterwards but Noel Acosta, the two priests and others remained in detention under military jurisdiction for several weeks. Hundreds of people were detained under the Ley de Vagos y Maleantes, Law of Vagrants and Crooks, which permits administrative detention for periods of up to five years, without judicial appeal or review. Most of those arrested under this law were from the poorest sectors of the population and none had committed any punishable crime or criminal offence. Scores of those detained under this law were reported to have been tortured and at least one was extrajudicially executed in custody (see below). Most of those held for alleged involvement in the coup attempts of February and November 1992 (see Amnesty International Report 1993) were released after the charges against them were suspended, but dozens remained in prison. Torture and ill-treatment by the security forces during criminal investigations were widespread and those responsible were able to act with impunity. At least one person died in detention as a result of torture. The police used various methods of torture to extract confessions from criminal suspects including beatings, suspension by the wrists or ankles for long periods, near-asphyxiation with plastic bags, electric shocks, and mock executions. Confessions allegedly obtained under torture continued to be accepted as evidence by the courts. State attorneys regularly failed to take effective action to investigate complaints of torture and official forensic doctors frequently avoided documenting cases of torture. Medical treatment for detainees who suffered torture was mostly unavailable or grossly inadequate. Fernando Arias Figueroa, Jorge Luis López Colmenares and Rafael Enrique Flores Farfán were held incommunicado for six days following their arrest by the DIM in Valencia in February. During the first four days they were reportedly interrogated and beaten, suspended by the wrists for long periods, partly asphyxiated with plastic bags and water, subjected to electric shocks and mock executions, slapped on the ears and deprived of food and water. They were apparently forced to sign blank statements and were then transferred to prison under military jurisdiction and charged with attempted murder. They filed a formal complaint about their torture in March, supported by medical evidence, but no action was known to have been taken against those responsible for their torture. Douglas Jesús Baptista León, a taxi driver, was arrested without warrant by members of the Policía Técnica Judicial (PTJ), Criminal Investigations' Police, in Caracas in September. He was held incommunicado at the PTJ's central headquarters and tortured by being suspended by the wrists, subjected to electric shocks and beaten on the body and head, which impaired his hearing. While in detention he was apparently seen by a district attorney who failed to document his condition. His relatives paid money to the police and he was released. Walter Alexander Del Nogal, a law student, was also reportedly tortured at the PTJ's headquarters in Caracas after he was arrested in October. The police beat him, suspended him by the ankles and partly asphyxiated him using a plastic bag with ammonia to make him admit to plotting against the government and incriminate others. He remained in prison without charge at the end of the year. Also in October, Freddy Ramón Alcarra Rangel died, seven days after his arrest, apparently as a result of beatings and blows to the head inflicted by warders of the PTJ detention centre in the Retén de Catia prison in Caracas. In November Amnesty International representatives visited a PTJ detention centre at the Retén de Catia prison in Caracas where they had access to several torture victims. One, Richard Alves Medina, had been brutally beaten by the police after his arrest a few days earlier, sustaining a fractured arm, but had received no medical treatment. Other detainees had also sustained injuries under police torture. No action was taken by the authorities to bring to justice those responsible for the torture of 22 people, including a pregnant woman, in Valencia, Carabobo, in 1992 (see Amnesty International Report 1993). Prison conditions continued to be extremely harsh, frequently amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and scores of prison inmates reportedly suffered torture or ill-treatment. The government publicly acknowledged the deteriorating conditions and increased risk to prison inmates due to overcrowding, bad sanitation and other factors, but took no effective action to address the problems. Scores of prisoners were killed in violent incidents, including protests against prison conditions. In June at least six prisoners were killed and more than 20 injured in the Centro Penitenciario, central prison, in Barcelona, Anzoátegui state, during violent clashes between inmates and guards after scores of prisoners were denied visits on Father's Day. Scores of people were killed by the security forces in suspicious circumstances; some of them may have been victims of extrajudicial executions. They included Lisandro José Silva Piñago, a secondary school student, who was shot twice at close range by a police officer while he was queuing in a Caracas shop in June. The police officer said he thought the student was a thief. In September a three-year-old child was killed when members of the Guardia Nacional, National Guard, fired without provocation at a group of bystanders during a police raid in Caracas. Also in September, Sergio Rodríguez Yance, a human rights activist, was shot dead by a member of the Military Police during a peaceful student demonstration in Caracas. Official investigations were opened into the above cases but those allegedly responsible had not been charged or brought to trial by the end of the year. Francisco Javier Méndez Cortéz was shot dead by the National Guard in November when he tried to seek help from the director of a prison in El Dorado, Bolívar state, after he had been beaten by prison guards. He was waiting to be released after having completed a sentence of 12 months' imprisonment under the Law of Vagrants and Crooks in September. His case did not apparently result in an official inquiry, nor did similar such killings in previous years. By the end of 1993, none of those responsible in 1992 for the massacre of at least 63 inmates in the Retén de Catia prison in Caracas or the killing of two Wayúu Indians had been charged or brought to trial (see Amnesty International Report 1993). Amnesty International expressed concern to the government about the imprisonment of prisoners of conscience, torture and ill-treatment and possible extrajudicial executions and called for urgent action to remedy these abuses. In November Amnesty International published a report, Venezuela: The eclipse of human rights, which contained detailed recommendations for human rights safeguards. The report was released in Venezuela during the visit of an Amnesty International delegation which met the Foreign Minister, Interior and Justice Ministry officials and members of the Supreme Court, as well as representatives of the main political parties contesting the December elections, to discuss human rights. Those interviewed by the delegation, including representatives of Rafael Caldera's party, vowed to adopt measures to implement a repeal of the Law of Vagrants and Crooks. Earlier, in April, Foreign Minister Fernandó Ochóa Antich had visited the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London and assured the organization of his government's commitment to ending human rights violations.