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Security & Strategic Review - June 2014 (ISSN 1741-4202)

VENEZUELA: Rival accounts of the unrest

The government of President Nicolás Maduro has insistently portrayed the wave of protest actions launched by the opposition earlier this year as a ‘continuing coup attempt’, while the latter have maintained that they were initially provoked by public insecurity, rampant inflation and the widespread shortage of essential goods, which escalated in response to the government’s brutal repression — though the most radical members of the opposition have said that they intend to continue until the Maduro government collapses. Both sides have been marshalling figures (often the same ones with differing slants) in support of their cases.

The protests which began in Mérida in early January, spread in early February to San Cristóbal, Táchira, and days later to Caracas, then rapidly across 16 of the country’s states [SSR-14-03]. As early as 24 February a group of 34 rights advocates issued a document listing instances of excessive repression and violation of human rights by the government.

A month later Alba Ciudad, one of the broadcasting outlets of the government’s Sistema Bolivariano de Comunicación e Información (Sibci) picked up their data and added information gleaned from media reports to back up a report which claimed that there had been 41 fatalities in the protests, of which only six of them were killed by ‘organs of the state’.

On 10 June eight non-governmental organisations* (see next page) issued a 161-page report which went beyond that of February to claim that by end-March as many as 800,000 people had taken to the streets in 16 states, though it focused on detailed information from a survey conducted in seven of them, where there had been 602 protest actions, of which 562 had been peaceful, but 205 had been violently repressed by the Guardia Nacional Bolivariana (GNB), the Policía Nacional Bolivariana (PNB), state police forces and Sebin, the national intelligence service.

This report does not add to the total number of fatalities, but does attribute eight of the fatalities to ‘armed civilians’ acting in concert with the security forces, and it records that 27 deaths were caused by gunfire. It also goes beyond the death toll to note that in the seven surveyed states, 34% of the protest actions, including many that had been peaceful, had been repressed by the security forces. In Zulia and Lara the proportion rose to 50%.

Protests & repression
Seven states, surveyed in February-March 2014*
State N° protests Peaceful Violent Repressed
Capital district 218 208 10 64
Carabobo 112 105 7 40
Bolívar 82 77 5 23
Táchira 57 50 7 16
Lara 56 53 3 28
Mérida 40 33 7 23
Zulia 37 36 1 11
Total 602 562 40 205
*Ranked by number of protest actions.
Source: Provea, with data from Espacio Público.

In the clashes 138 persons were injured; 330 by rubber bullets and 138 by firearms. There were 3,127 arrests which the report classifies as arbitrary (in 2,463 cases the people involved were taken to court). There were 157 complaints of ill treatment or torture, both in detention centres and during transfers — in most cases involving detainees being struck or kicked.

The report also lists 204 raids on residential areas where protests took place, involving illegal entry to homes and damage to private property. The GNB acted in 81% of these raids, state police forces in 17%, the army in 12% and the PNB in 8%. Also involved in 26% of these raids were groups of armed civilians.

*Civilis Derechos Humanos, Espacio Público, Foro Penal Venezolano, Funpaz (Lara), Provea, Comisión Inter-Institucional de Derechos Humanos (Universidad del Zulia), Escuela de Derecho (Universidaad Rafael Urdaneta) and Comisión de Derechos Humanos (Colegio de Abogados, Zulia).

Links

▫ NGO report: http://www.derechos.org.ve/2014/06/10/organizaciones-de-ddhh-presentaron-el-informe-venezuela-2014-protestas-y-derechos-humanos/

▫ Alba Ciudad report: http://albaciudad.org/wp/index.php/2014/04/conozca-los-26-fallecidos-a-un-mes-del-inicio-de-las-protestas-opositoras-la-gran-mayoria-son-victimas-de-las-barricadas/

Violent deaths reported during protests
February-April 2014
Killed attempting to cross barricades 10
Killed by security forces 6*
Killed in roadblocks or barricades 6
Killed while defending barricades 3
Killed at home or in street 2
Killed by accident 3
Killed by other political violence 10
Undetermined 1
Total 41
*June NGO report lists 8 killed by armed civilians acting in concert with security forces.
Source: Alba Ciudad, based on a 24 February document signed by 34 leading rights advocates, updated by Alba Ciudad with media reports.

 

Injuries reported during protests
February-April 2014
Cause N° cases
Beatings 72
Rubber bullets 330
Firearms 138
Blunt objects 34
Other 280
Total 854
Source: Provea.

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