A/HRC/45/33 the cases, victims’ family members – usually women, older persons and children – were removed from the houses by the security forces, limiting witnesses at the scene to security forces only. 94. These claims stand in contrast to accounts from family members and other witnesses who last saw the victim alive under the control of armed security officials. Furthermore, victims received fatal shots to vital areas of the body, sometimes at point blank range. The fatal shots suggest that security forces did not attempt to employ non-lethal methods of control, de-escalation or restraint prior to the use of lethal force. In the cases investigated, no security forces were reported killed in the Operations for People’s Liberation, making armed confrontations seem unlikely. 95. There are reasonable grounds to believe that during the Operations for People’s Liberation and the Operations for People’s Humane Liberation, security forces planted evidence or simulated confrontations. Allegations of cover-ups that were documented included the planting of weapons or contraband; the shooting of walls of the house to make it look like a gunfight had taken place; and shots fired in the air while shouting that the victims were attempting to escape. 96. While official numbers vary, the Public Prosecutor’s Office said that, between July 2015 and March 2017, security forces had detained 1,050 individuals.18 One year after the official launch of the Operations for People’s Liberation, the Minister of the Interior indicated that 2,399 people had been detained for different crimes. The NGO Programa Venezolano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos documented even more, reporting an estimated 15,946 arrests in the context of the Operations for People’s Liberation in 2015 alone.19 97. The mission analysed data from the Public Prosecutor’s Office of 329 cases of detentions in more than 160 operations, involving 877 people who were allegedly detained in flagrante delicto, during the Operations for People’s Liberation carried out between 12 July 2015 to 13 October 2016. The most common crimes charged were: resistance to authority (26.8 per cent); smuggling (8.2 per cent); drug trafficking (7.6 per cent); and/or illegal possession of firearms (7 per cent). There is no information available regarding the outcome of these cases. 98. Some common patterns in the modus operandi of the detentions emerged. Security forces neither presented arrest warrants nor informed detainees of the reasons for their arrest. Security forces used violence during arrests. The mission also documented temporary detentions of family members of victims who were killed – especially women, children and older persons – who were removed by force or detained for short periods. 99. The security officers entered homes and seized items without a search warrant. The mission also documented consistent allegations by witnesses and victims that security forces destroyed furniture and installations, and stole items, including food and household goods, cash, cell phones, computers and other valuables. 100. Victims of executions and detentions carried out by security forces were largely young men. Officers involved in the operations also perpetrated acts of violence against women, most often during the process of removing relatives from their homes. 101. Female relatives were generally the ones to file complaints about the murder of their family members or to seek information about their whereabouts. Surviving family members also faced the additional social and economic hardship resulting from the executions, detentions and raids. 3. Other extrajudicial executions by police forces 102. There are reasonable grounds to believe that officers from two branches of the police – the National Bolivarian Police and its Special Action Forces, and the Scientific, Criminal and Criminological Investigator Corps – committed extrajudicial executions during security 18 19 12 Public Prosecutor’s Office, Actuaciones del Ministerio Público relacionadas con los OLP en Venezuela (Julio 2015–Marzo 2017). www.derechos.org.ve/pw/wp-content/uploads/Derecho-a-la-Libertad-Personal.pdf (in Spanish).