A/HRC/45/CRP.11
The Criminal Investigation
1124. The brothers’ female relative, C4FF06, filed a complaint with the CICPC in Zulia
about the deaths on 14 September 2015. As she did so, CICPC officers threatened her, saying
to “leave it at that, because the family was very big and she should think about those who
were left”.2001 In September 2017, C4FF06 filed a complaint with the Third Court of
Maracaibo against the CPBEZ officers that she accused of intimidating her by loitering near
her home, asking neighbours about her and tracking her family’s vehicle. 2002
1125. The threats received did not manage to intimidate victims in their search for justice.
Given the importance of the case, the Seventy-Sixth Public Prosecutor’s Office with National
Competence supported the local Forty-Fifth Prosecutor’s Office in the investigation.2003
1126. On 20 October 2016 and 11 November 2016, hearings were held and four CPBEZ
agents were charged with aggravated homicide,2004 misuse of service weapons2005 and
simulation of a punishable act.2006 The events in Santa Rosa de Agua were reported by the
CPBEZ to the CICPC’s Zulia Homicide Division as having occurred in the context of an
exchange of fire. According to two officers who participated in the operation, no injuries or
deaths were reported among the security agents. 2007
1127. One mid-ranking CPBEZ officer told the CICPC investigation that the OLP was
carried out by mixed units of the GNB, CICPC, and CPBEZ, as decreed by the President. 2008
While passing a house in a vehicle he and his fellow officers saw two men who, upon seeing
the police, ran inside the brothers’ house.2009
1128. The same CPBEZ officer told the investigation that three West Maracaibo Department
police officers and a DIEP officer were fired upon as they entered the house and had to return
fire to protect themselves and others.2010 Officers provided conflicting accounts as to where
the two men’s bodies fell after having been shot. A police officer stated that one of the victim
fell in the backyard of the house, while the other brother was shot in the outer alley. This
officer’s supervisor stated that one of the deceased fell to the ground in front of the garage,
while the other victim received the fatal injury outside, behind the house. 2011
1129. Technical and scientific tests carried out during the CICPC investigation established
that the brothers were not shot where the police claimed. A luminol test and haematological
analysis carried out by the CICPC indicated that C4FF20 was killed inside his house, 2012
validating the family’s belief that he was executed in his living room, next to the kitchen, and
later dragged outside through the kitchen door. The CICPC investigation also showed that
C4FF19 was shot outside the house in the alleyway that leads to an outside bathroom located
in the courtyard of the house. A family member also told the Mission that they believe agents
had tampered with the crime scene in the house.2013
1130. Both bodies arrived at the hospital with no signs of life. One of the doctors working
at Pons Hospital told the Public Prosecutor’s Office that several unidentified patients, all of
them lifeless and with gunshot wounds, were admitted that day, brought by CICPC officials.
The doctor recalled that some arrived in jeans, others only in a sweater, most were barefoot.
They were sent directly to the morgue.2014
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Document C4FF04 on file with the Mission.
Ibid.
Mission Interview C4FF05 in June 2020.
Criminal Code, art. 405 and ff.
Criminal Code, art. 277-283. Law for Disarmament and Control of Arms and Ammunition, art. 115.
Criminal Code, art. 239. Document C4FF03 on file with the Mission.
Document C4FF03 on file with the Mission.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Document C4FF03 on file with the Mission.
Mission Interview C4FF06 in June 2020.
Document C4FF03 on file with the Mission.
221
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