A/HRC/45/CRP.11
in the operations to determine whether specific procedural and due process guarantees have
been also violated, in addition to the arbitrary arrests noted.
Gendered Impact of Operations
1053. Executions and detentions were overwhelmingly perpetrated against young men, who
faced much higher risks of physical violence than their female or older male relatives.
Officers involved in the operations also perpetrated concomitant acts of violence against
women.
1054. In all four major operations investigated, the Mission reviewed reports that women
had been hit, dragged by the hair, or otherwise mistreated. Some received gendered insults.
For example, women in La Cota 905 said officials would call them “damned gossips”
(malditas chismosas), “mothers’ cunts” (coños de su madre), “big mouths” (sapas), “bitches”
(cabronas), among other names, while being beaten or pushed from their homes during
raids.1864
1055. These acts generally occurred in the process of removing relatives from the homes.
In one instance, officers reportedly hit a toddler and his mother. 1865 Another mother was hit
in the stomach while holding her infant when she resisted leaving the house.1866 In another
incident, a relative asking for information about the welfare of her family members was
threatened by a GNB official who told her he would call in a female officer to beat her. 1867
1056. Female relatives were generally the ones to file complaints about the murder of their
family members, or to seek information about their whereabouts. They were threatened and
intimidated during these processes. CICPC officers told one female relative after she filed a
complaint that she should “leave it at that, because the family was very big and she should
think about those who were left”.1868 Another woman received a text message a few hours
after filing a complaint that said, “I’m watching you from the corner. You’re going to wake
up with flies in your mouth”.1869 Others reported they felt intimidated by police presence
outside their homes, or subsequent home raids.1870
1057. Surviving family members also faced the additional social and economic hardship
resulting from the executions, detentions and raids. Many of the young men killed provided
economic support to the homes, without which the burden fell disproportionately on the
shoulders of women. As most executions occurred in households with scarce economic
resources, the theft of food, medicine and other belongings significantly affected the
surviving families and exposed surviving female relatives and those in their care to additional
vulnerabilities.1871
C.
Cases
1058. The Mission selected the following cases for detailed investigation. Selection criteria
included substantive, security and other considerations, including, inter alia, availability of
witnesses, legal case files and digital information. These cases are representative of similar
situations experienced by many others. The inclusion of these cases and not others does not
imply that others have not also suffered violations, nor minimizes the experiences of other
victims.
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
208
Statement made by a victim in an interview with a Venezuelan citizen security expert (C4FF03) No.
6, on file with the Mission, 20 July 2018; Statement made by a witness in an interview with a
Venezuelan citizen security expert (C4FF03) No. 7, on file with the Mission, 14 June 2018.
OLPs in the Cota 905 neighbourhood (13 July 2015 and 10 May 2016).
Mission Interview C4FF07 in June 2020.
Document C4FF03 on file with the Mission, pp. 14-20.
Document C4FF03 on file with the Mission.
Mission Interview C4FF04 in June 2020.
Mission Interview C4FF05 in March 2020; Document C4FF06 on file with the Mission.
Mission Interview with COFAVIC, 1 May 2020.
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents