A/HRC/45/33 public prosecutor in the case of Leopoldo López, later described the trial as a sham, and indicated that he remained silent because of fear, owing to pressure exerted by his superiors. 77. According to the Constitution (art. 261), the jurisdiction of military courts is limited to crimes of a military nature, and ordinary crimes, human rights violations and crimes against humanity are subject to ordinary jurisdiction. 11 Traditionally, there has been a restrictive interpretation of military jurisdiction.12 However, the mission’s analysis of cases revealed an increasingly frequent use of military jurisdiction to prosecute and try civilians, especially since April 2017. 78. Judicial authorities refused to order investigations into allegations of torture, even in cases in which victims either appeared in court with clear marks of mistreatment or stated during hearings that they had been tortured. In several cases, the judges ordered that the accused be returned to the place where they claimed to have been tortured, usually the premises of the Directorate General of Military Counter-intelligence in Boleíta. B. Violations in a social control or security context 1. Background 79. The human rights violations that the mission was mandated to investigate, particularly extrajudicial executions, also took place within the context of security operations. These were police and/or military operations aimed at combating crime, which resulted in high numbers of extrajudicial executions against people perceived as criminals. 80. According to the Constitution (art. 43), the right to life is inviolable and the death penalty is prohibited. The organic laws of the various police forces – including the National Bolivarian Police 13 (and its by-law 14 ) and the Scientific, Criminal and Criminological Investigator Corps15 – permit the use of lethal force if necessary to protect the life of a police officer or a third party. 81. Official information about killings by State security forces is not generally available. In the full report, the mission provides an extensive overview of the data collected by others, including from the Ministry of Interior, Justice and Peace; the former Attorney General; and two NGOs: Observatorio Venezolano de la Violencia and Comité de familiares de las víctimas de los sucesos de febrero-marzo de 1989 (COFAVIC). Even the lowest estimates suggest that the rate of killings carried out by State agents is among the highest in Latin America. While not all of the killings were necessarily unlawful, the estimates provide relevant background to the violations documented by the mission. 82. The mission requested information from the Government on the progress of investigations into killings by State security forces. At the time of writing of the present report, the mission had not received a response. The vast majority of cases of killings by security forces have not been subject to prosecution. The principal exceptions are the Public Prosecutor’s Office investigation into 43 operations known as Operations for People’s Liberation and Operations for People’s Humane Liberation, and into the Barlovento case. 2. Operations for People’s Liberation and Operations for People’s Humane Liberation (a) Strategy and objectives 83. The mission investigated and reviewed 140 of the Operations for People’s Liberation and Operations for People’s Humane Liberation, five of which are detailed in the full report as case studies. It also investigated the military operation in Barlovento, which differed in some ways from other operations, having been carried out in accordance with a military plan known as Plan Rondón. 11 12 13 14 15 10 See also art. 29 of the Constitution. Supreme Court, Judgment No. 883, case No. 01-2721, 24 April 2002. Decree No. 5,895, arts. 68–72. Decree No. 2,765, arts. 60–90. Decree No. 9,045, arts. 84–85.