Between April and July 2017, the Human Rights Observatory of Universidad de Los Andes (ODH-ULA) recorded a total of 22 people shot in one or both eyes by public force officials. These events occurred in at least two counties of Mérida amid nationwide social protests. “Between April 25 and July 27, 2017, a person was shot in the eyes every four days”, states the Observatory’s annual report titled “Mérida: Assault on human rights 2017”.

The ODH-ULA has determined that shooting lead pellets and modified ammunition – aimed at causing the greatest possible damage – directly to the face constitute a pattern of repression exercised by the State security forces against citizens during social protests. The most recent case of this repressive practice was registered on July 2, 2019, in the state of Táchira, when officers of the state police shot Rufo Chacón, who lost both eyes as a result of the point-blank attack perpetrated during a peaceful protest for the lack of domestic gas service. The medical report indicated that, in addition to losing both of his eyes, a total of 52 pellets were embedded in Chacón’s face, partially disfiguring him.

In the cases registered by the ODH-ULA in 2017, “it was found that the ocular traumas were caused by metallic bodies such as pellets and ammunition modified with objects such as pieces of steel bars”, according to the reports made by the doctors who cared for the affected. The average age of the victims was 23; a high school student as young as 14 years old was the youngest victim of the attacks to the eyes committed during that period.

The excessive and disproportionate repression exercised by those who must ensure citizen security constitutes a violation of article 55 of the National Constitution and articles 68, 69, and 70 of the Organic Law of the Police Service and the National Police Corps, as well as the international standards that prescribe the progressive and differentiated use of force in the control of public demonstrations, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials established by the United Nations (UN).

These cases, along with others documented by the ODH-ULA, were presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in the city of Cúcuta, Colombia, last February, during the on-site visit that this organization had planned to Venezuela and that the de facto regime prevented. Two of the victims of the attacks by law enforcement officials in Mérida joined the ODH-ULA team and gave their testimonies before the commissioners.

Impunity and threats

The ODH-ULA has followed up on some of the cases registered in 2017, finding out that no justice has been served in most of them. Leonard Rondón was one of those 22 people with eye injuries and was left blind for life, while the assailant has not even been identified. The Observatory has taken on his defense, which still awaits a response from the Public Ministry.

Leonard, who was 21 at the time of the attack, recounted that “it was Tuesday, June 27, 2017, around 10 in the morning and I was painting my room. Downstairs, a protest was taking place and the police arrived to repress. There were 6 officers and they started throwing stones at the windows of my building. I decided to go down with my brother because I thought the police were doing wrong. It was then that they began to repress with pellets. I was about 16 feet away from them. I turned around to protect myself, but that was when I received a shot in the right eye”. That day alone, 8 people were shot in one or both eyes in the Campo Elías county of Mérida state.

In addition to the attack against him more than three years ago, Leonard Rondón has been the victim of threats from a police officer who happens to be his neighbor. The ODH-ULA rejects the re-victimization of people attacked by officers at the service of the State, whose unpunished crimes allow them to continue acting against the law.

Translated by: José Rafael Medina.