Sociologist Verónica Zubillaga points out that “a machinery of atrocity” underlies the actions of the Special Actions Forces (FAES) of the Bolivarian National Police. The researcher points out that the murder of two community journalists in the state of Zulia cannot be seen as an isolated incident. She identifies a systematic pattern in which the higher ranks encourage and even demand lethal action during police operations, while the subordinates obey their orders

Sociologist Verónica Zubillaga asserts that “a machinery of atrocity” underlies the actions of the Special Actions Forces (FAES) of the Bolivarian National Police.

Ms. Zubillaga, also a professor at the Simón Bolívar University (USB) and a member of the Network of Activism and Research for Coexistence (Reacin), points out in an interview for TalCual that a State of criminalization and punishment is thriving in Venezuela amid a very unstable situation.

– You have pointed out that, since 2010, and especially 2015, there has been a process of militarization of citizen security in which the military has a fundamental role. What consequences has this policy had?

– There is a traditional militarized imprint on our police forces. Since the 1980s, the works of Tosca Hernández have denounced the militarization of police action. Specifically concerning the raids that used to be practiced in the slums and the abuse of force. What has happened in the last two decades? During the Bolivarian revolution, the police problem has been complex because it was taken over by politicization and polarization. There was a serious effort in the police reform process to transform a militarized police into a civilian oriented organ. An attempt was made to standardize police regulations and, notably, there was a very important effort in regulating the progressive use of force.

However, in parallel to the efforts for police reform, there was also a significant advance of militarization. Using a metaphor that social scientists love, we can say that the police reform was written with the left hand. while militarized operations such as the Bicentennial Security Program (Dibise) began to be deployed with the right hand in 2010. This was followed by another terrible operation, such as the Madrugonazo al Hampa operations (Unannounced police operations) and Plan Patria Segura (A Safe Homeland Plan). During all those years homicide rates increased greatly.

– Did the same thing happen with the Operación para la Liberación del Pueblo (Operation for the Liberation of the People, OLP)?

– In the framework of these militarized operations, crime rates and, notably, homicide rates, increased rather than decreasing. Besides, it generated a reorganization of the criminal network. Criminals were not deterred but, on the contrary, became more armed; they decided to respond to the declaration of war. During the OLP’s first incursion into Cota 905, a slum in Caracas, at least 14 people died, while the neighbors claim the figure is higher. This event was the starting point for two years of systematic operations under the OLP. Former prosecutor Luisa Ortega declared that the number of homicides exceeded 21,000 in 2016, and denounced that at least 4,667 deaths were caused by the police forces. Now you can understand the lethality of these operations.

–The attorney general appointed by the Constituent Assembly, Tarek William Saab, said that community journalists Andrés Eloy Zacarías Nieves and Víctor Manuel Torres “could have been victims of extrajudicial executions” in the state of Zulia. Several FAES officers have been detained. The fact adds to the abuses and excesses attributed to this security organ. Is this evidence of a pattern out of the State’s control?

-Of course. Regarding the murders of the young men from Guacamaya TV, the authorities are responding as if they were isolated cases, and we have listened to the Prosecutor declaring that offenders have already been identified. However, when one looks closer at the actions of the OLP and the FAES, one can perceive a “machinery of atrocity,” as the Brazilian anthropologist Martha Huggins points out. In other words, they are not isolated cases, but rather a systematic pattern in which the higher ranks encourage and even demand lethal action during police operations and the subordinates obey their orders. This machinery generates a dynamic in which the individual actions of the police begin to spiral out of control.

-There seems to be a pattern of action under the gaze of the State

– It does, to the point that one goes to a community and systematically registers this pattern of action. To name an example, big groups of masked officers used to enter the slums during the OLPs and storm the homes, taking away the men and leaving the women. Of course, women were insulted for defending their male relatives. Also, the officers used to steal food, household items, cell phones, and tablets from the homes. We have registered the unpunished murder of young men by this and other security forces. In 2017, the Prosecutor Ortega Díaz denounced that 21 percent of violent deaths were perpetrated by the police: That proportion is enormous!

The fact that the police are responsible for a quarter of violent deaths in a country for several years in a row, means that they are a major lethal actor. In 2018, according to the work of Keymer Ávila, 26 percent of all violent deaths were perpetrated by police forces. Instead of decreasing as a result of the security policies, there was an increase. This can also be verified in the registry of violent deaths in Caracas compiled by Monitor de Víctimas (The Monitor of Victims). In some areas like El Paraíso, Santa Rosalía, Altagracia, and San Agustín, more than half of all violent deaths were perpetrated by police officers.

– In the case of the murdered community journalists, the Prosecutor said that they will never tolerate that police officers use their uniforms, insignia, weapons, and official vehicles to steal and kill

– From our experience conducting fieldwork, the hardest thing is to listen to the stories of the mothers whose children were murdered and how the crimes remain unpunished; In an early stage, you do not even need extensive investigation, you have those recounts. As I said, it is a machinery of atrocity, where official instances such as the Prosecutor’s Office do not pay proper attention to the cases, and the victim’s relatives experience new victimization by the institutions.

-What have you observed in the case of the FAES? Is there a pattern of action?

– After so many people complained about the OLPs, the operations conducted by the FAES have been, and I place in quotation marks, more professional. This means that they are no longer massive incursions into residential communities but more targeted and specific actions with the same order to eliminate.

-After the recent clash that took place in Cota 905, The commissioner of the FAES, Miguel Domínguez, said that “the peace zones promoted by the government are a concept that does not exist within the revolution.” Could this statement corroborate their operation patterns?

-At the same time, the statement is an indicator of the deep fragmentation of the Venezuelan State. As a matter of fact, Cota 905 was declared a peace zone; The press covered the truce agreed upon by the authorities and the gang leaders. What is happening, then? Another major cause of chaos, impunity, and this lethal violence is the fragmentation and the internal struggles unleashed within the State. For example, one indicator: months ago a clash took place on Prados del Este Highway between officers of the Bureau for Scientific, Criminal and Forensic Investigations (Cicpc), and the FAES. This is a tragic indicator of the internal struggles within the state.

-In this context, can the FAES be considered the most lethal force?

– Definitely. They act with impunity. Even in public speeches by the authorities and conversations with some police officers, it is evident that the order is to kill. This type of guideline is also reflected in the recounts of the residents in the affected communities, where the victims’ relatives often say: “they used to be taken prisoner; now they are murdered and the officers stage an armed confrontation.”

-Are we talking about executions?

– Yes. Tragically, mothers’ organizations are starting to emerge in the country, seeking justice for the youngsters killed by police agents. You have the Organization of Relatives of Victims of Human Rights Violations, which brings together the women whose children were murdered by the police forces. The extent of the problem is so serious, that many associations and groups of victims have been created to denounce these tragedies and systematic atrocities.

-The Venezuelan State has ignored the recommendations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the suppression of the FAES

-This is what happens with extensive militarization; public security is seen under the dynamics of war and enemies. Under this logic, all this type of abuse is justified. Under this logic, rhetorical exaggeration is employed to claim the FAES are destined to fight against paramilitary groups and terrorists. In reality, we have a hungry population; We have a young male population amid a devastated economy that finds in criminal networks and illicit activities a guarantee of a certain economic survival.

Social scientists say “the victim is often blamed.” I mean, young people in vulnerable communities, instead of having support in terms of economic opportunities and social inclusion, find themselves abandoned. Of course, they seek to channel their needs through the only networks that can absorb them, which are the illicit economic networks, thus becoming culprits and victims of all these iron fist policies that reproduce this abuse of power, police unaccountability, and the suffering of the population. Now we have the new social drama of thousands of victims of police violence.

– Is the resistance to dissolve these organizations a consequence of a pattern from which the State cannot get rid?

– These policies of mass control emerged in the wake of the conflict stimulated by the economic and social situation in the country in 2014 after the collapse of oil prices left much less money available to Nicolás Maduro, a man without the charisma that President Hugo Chávez had to agglutinate and pacify. It meant the advance of the state of criminalization and punishment, amid a very unstable situation of hunger, scarcity, and inflation. In other words, a potentially explosive situation that was answered with a military fist.

– Are the FAES also being used to persecute dissidents?

-In fact, some incidents and indicators show that the FAES are being used as a form of control against social and political discontent. This became evident in January 2019 when protests erupted in some working-class neighborhoods: the FAES were first to respond. Between January and February 2019, at least 40 people were murdered in working-class neighborhoods at the hands of the FAES and other armed groups. The protests began in the slums. The FAES are clearly acting as a mass control organ in these cases.

–Besides vulnerability and impunity, there is also opacity on the actions of the FAES

-Definitely. Since 2009, at least, public information has been suspended. By the way, access to information is a right enshrined in the 1999 Constitution. The Minister of the Interior and Justice provides general figures during his annual address, but there is no publication of detailed figures. A researcher cannot access information to establish connections, trends, local dynamics on the use of lethal violence, or even hold a conversation with the authorities. There are even fewer official figures on the performance of the FAES. But there are alternative records. For example, Monitor de Víctimas has conducted a systematic work of gathering information in the morgue. Civil society keeps parallel records.

– What measures could the Venezuelan State have taken to address the situation?

-Violence is not a fatal destiny; It is possible to defuse it with social and institutional agreements and public policies aimed at preserving the lives of the people. As an example, the work carried out within the framework of the National Commission for Police Reform, the Presidential Commission for Arms Control and Disarmament, or Misión a Toda Vida (A national plan to improve public security). All these initiatives invested heavily in deliberation, research, knowledge, and international advice. This means we have the know-how.

For example, The National Commission for Police Reform developed regulations for the progressive use of force. A very specialized knowledge was forged around the idea of a desirable police force. In fact, when the National Police began to be created, I can say that we trust it. Sadly, the trust lasted very little, because the wages of the police officers began to degrade and the militarized operations re-emerged. Furthermore, Nicolás Maduro affirmed in 2015 that the National Police must exhibit military discipline.

Translated by: José Rafael Medina