A/HRC/45/CRP.11 II. The Operations for People’s Liberation (OLP) and the Operations for People’s Humane Liberation (OLHP) A. Strategy and Objectives 1019. The Mission carried out an in-depth investigation into five OLP/OLHPs. It includes among the cases investigated a military operation in Barlovento which differs in some ways to the established patterns in the other operations, including because it was carried out in accordance with a military plan, Plan Rondón. The Mission also reviewed and partially investigated a further 135 OLPs/OLHPs that took place between July 2015 and March 2017, which were announced by official sources, published in news reports or documented by civil society organizations. OLPs 1020. Government officials presented OLPs as a series of joint military and police operations, which began in July 2015 and continued until July 2017. When launching the OLPs in July 2015, the Government described them as “specially designed” to “liberate territories from criminal activity”,1803 including from drug trafficking, extortion, theft, kidnapping and homicide.1804 In August 2015, President Maduro referred to OLPs as the most suitable solution to counter organized crime and achieve peace. 1805 The OLPs may also have had express “social cleansing” motives.1806 State representatives described organized crime targeted by the OLPs as one of the main “practices of the national right-wing and its international allies that seek to oppress our people, as a strategy of unconventional warfare”.1807 1021. Initially implemented five months before the National Assembly elections in December 2015, analysts have suggested OLPs were an effort to gain electoral popularity by showing results in combating crime.1808 Government representatives have claimed links between the criminal gangs targeted in the OLPs and political actors and interests. For example, the May 2016 Presidential Decree declaring a state of exception 1809 referred explicitly to “information gathered in OLPs”, which “detected the existence of armed criminal groups” and “established their links to political actors and interests”. 1810 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 YouTube Video, Luigino Bracci Roa, González López: Mueren 14 maleantes en Cota 905, operativos en Betania y Ciudad Tiuna, 13 June 2015, minute 1:20, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vd3TEAC16I. YouTube Video, Globovisión Videos, González López aseguro que 82% de la población aprueba la OLP, 13 June 2016, minute 0:20, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRKHlQWqigU. See statement of President Maduro in Telesur, Maduro: OLP are the best instrument to achieve peace, 4 August 2015, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goyc40CDniA. In televised statement, President Maduro mistakenly referred to OLPs as operations of “limpieza social” (social cleansing). See La Patilla video, Maduro llama operación de “limpieza” a la OLP, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1GXUa9Tj58. Also, according to the former Attorney General, Luis Ortega Díaz, when the Public Prosecutor’s Office raised concerns regarding the high level of complaints received about OLPs, the Minister of the Interior said that the orders had come from the President and that the order was to carry out a “social cleansing”. Complaint by exAttorney General, Luisa Ortega Díaz, to the International Criminal Court, 16 November 2017, on file with the Mission. Asociación Control Ciudadano, Balance OLP: Desarticuladas 157 bandas criminales en 143 incursiones, la mayoría en Miranda, 13 July 2016, available at: https://www.controlciudadano.org/noticias/balance-olp-desarticuladas-157-bandas-criminales-en-143incursiones-la-mayoria-en-miranda. See e.g., Keymer Ávila, Las Operaciones de Liberación del Pueblo (OLP): entre las ausencias y los excesos del sistema penal en Venezuela, 10 October 2016, https://www.revistamisionjuridica.com/las-operaciones-de-liberacion-del-pueblo-olp-entre-lasausencias-y-los-excesos-del-sistema-penal-en-venezuela/. Presidential Decree No. 2323, published in Official Gazette No. 6227, 13 May 2016, available at: https://pandectasdigital.blogspot.com/2016/05/decreto-n-2323-de-fecha-13-de-mayo-de.html. Ibid., parte Considerando. 201