A/HRC/45/CRP.11 covered.1842 Both female and male security officials participated in the operations. OLPs took place primarily in urban, low-income neighbourhoods. Prior Intelligence and Preparation 1037. Several of the operations were announced as having specific criminal targets. According to a reliable witness who worked on OLP cases, in some cases security forces carried out prior intelligence work to identify the targets.1843 This included infiltrating social, cultural, sports and charitable activities in the neighbourhood; recruiting sex workers, who took photos of “wanted” clients; using drones to identify suspected criminals; reviewing pictures and profiles on social media; and reviewing contacts and photos contained in cell phones seized from known criminals.1844 1038. However, in other cases, there was reportedly a lack of prior preparation and identification of targets of the operations. According to a police officer interviewed, “there is no previous investigations, you grab an informant and then he tells you no, this one is involved, this one, this one, so you don’t know if this guy has [...] he has problems or grudges with this one and then he uses the police to eliminate this one, his competition”.1845 Most lethal victims in the cases investigated did not have criminal records or outstanding arrest warrants against them. 1039. The Mission had access to statements made by police officers in an interview with an international citizen security expert indicating that their commanders had received very few operational instructions in advance, supposedly in order to maintain an element of “surprise” and to prevent information from leaking.1846 This resulted in a lack of time to train operatives properly and a lack of clear instructions from superiors regarding the operations. 1847 Killings in OLP/OLHPs 1040. According to official sources, a high number of deaths occurred during OLPs/OLHPs. In its investigations, the Public Prosecutor’s Office identified at least 505 people killed during the OLPs (502 men, three women, including 27 adolescents). 1848 In the 140 cases reviewed by the Mission, 413 people were killed (306 men, among them 16 minors and three women) There was no information available on the sex of 104 victims. In 52 cases, between one and three deaths were registered, in 36 cases between four and nine deaths were registered in a single operation and in eight cases, there were ten or more deaths in a single operation. 1041. The investigations indicate that in a number of cases, security forces did not act in accordance with national law, nor did they comply with relevant international standards regarding use of lethal force. International human rights standards affirm that the use of potentially lethal force for law enforcement purposes is an extreme measure that should be 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 See also TVV, Militar venezolano usa máscara durante operativo de seguridad, 14 March 2020, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjmhhayBebw. Mission interview C4FF01 in April 2020. Mission interview C4FF01 in April 2020. Document C4FF01, on file with the Mission. Mission Interview C4FF02 in April 2020. Ibid. Of the deaths documented during OLPs by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the highest numbers occurred in Carabobo state (136 people or 26.9 per cent) and in the Caracas metropolitan area (126 people or 25 per cent). Deaths in other states included in Bolívar (76); Miranda (40); Portuguesa (26); Monagas (15); Aragua (14); Falcón (9); Zulia and Nueva Esparta (8); Mérida (7); Táchira (5); Cojedes, Sucre and Trujillo (4); Vargas (2). Public Prosecutor’s Office, actuaciones del Ministerio Público relacionadas con los OLP (julio 2015-marzo 2017), p. 9, available at: https://es.scribd.com/document/360500346/Informe-del-Ministerio-Publico-sobre-OLP2017#from_embed. The press outlet Runrunes.es carried out an extensive study on OLPs and documented 560 deaths in that context. See https://www.connectas.org/especiales/olp/. 205