A/HRC/45/CRP.11 • Interviews with victims, families, lawyers and witnesses with direct knowledge of incidents; • Legal case files and other verified confidential documents; • Interviews with former Government and military officials and others with direct knowledge of specific cases or of the internal workings of certain institutions (insiders); • Interviews with currently serving members of security forces conducted under strict confidentiality; • Verified digital information (in particular videos, satellite imagery or social media content) containing direct information of an incident; • Publicly available statements or information regarding relevant facts provided by Government institutions and representatives (including televised statements or statements posted on social media); and • Laws, policies and directives of the Government in Venezuela. 15. The Mission spoke with former Director General of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), General Christopher Figuera. The Mission is aware of his admitted role in the April 2019 coup attempt and his expressed intention to implicate President Maduro in the perpetration of serious crimes. The Mission notes that it has not received any information from the Government, despite requests, and therefore does not have countervailing information contradicting the points alleged by General Figuera. On balance, the Mission has relied on parts of the information provided by Mr. Figuera, cited throughout the present report, on the basis of its applicable standard of proof. In doing so, the Mission notes that other information received, including by other persons with inside information, corroborates parts of the statements provided by Mr. Figuera and that the information provided by General Figuera was, on its face, internally consistent and plausible. 16. Due to time and resource limitations, the Mission has not been able to analyse all contexts involving violations that could fall within its four mandated areas. This includes, notably, violations within the Arco Minero region. It recommends further investigation into allegations of serious human rights violations and crimes in this region, including against indigenous peoples.2 17. In its assessment of secondary information, the Mission endeavoured to interview the researcher or author of the publication, submission or text to assess its credibility and the methodology used. The reliability and credibility of each source was carefully assessed. The Mission considered whether the source was trustworthy, consistently probing the veracity of their statements. With respect to digital information, the Mission assessed the information’s reliability, namely through objectively verifiable information, corroboration of dates and times, visual comparison, comparing features of objects, persons and/or locations, geolocation, chronolocation, and completeness, namely whether it captured the information in its entirety and surrounding context. 18. The Mission collected and preserved information in accordance with its mandate to support accountability mechanisms. All information gathered by the Mission, including information pertaining to individual perpetrators, was stored in safe platforms, with strict and controlled access, applying best practices in terms of digital security and permanent control. The Mission authorized OHCHR to provide access to the existing materials contained in the database to competent authorities that carry out credible, impartial and independent 2 4 See e.g., Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, A/HRC/44/54, 15 July 2020, available at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session44/Documents/A_HRC_44_54_ UnofficialSpanishTranslation.pdf; Human Rights Watch, Venezuela: Violentos abusos en minas de oro ilegales, 4 February 2020, available at: https://www.hrw.org/es/news/2020/02/04/venezuelaviolentos-abusos-en-minas-de-oro-ilegales; International Crisis Group, El peso del oro: violencia en el sur de Venezuela, 28 February 2019, available at: https://www.crisisgroup.org/es/latin-americacaribbean/andes/venezuela/073-gold-and-grief-venezuelas-violent-south