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TITLE:  VENEZUELA HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994
AUTHOR:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DATE:  FEBRUARY 1995

                           VENEZUELA


Venezuela is a republic with an active multiparty democratic
system, a free press, well-established unions, and a
longstanding commitment to democracy.  These factors enabled
the country to withstand two attempted coups in 1992 and the
impeachment of a President in 1993.  Two-party dominance ended
on February 2 when former President Rafael Caldera was sworn in
as President after being elected with the support of a coalition
of small and medium-sized parties.  Four major political
groupings comprised the new Congress which convened in
January.  On June 27, the Government suspended the following
political and economic guarantees provided for in the
Constitution:  the freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention,
the freedom from search without a warrant, the freedom of
travel, the freedom to pursue profitable activities, the right
to own private property, and the right to receive compensation
for assets confiscated by the State.  The Government said,
initially, the suspension was necessary to combat unspecified
subversion and, subsequently, it was needed to provide the
administration with the necessary legal framework to address
the country's economic and financial crisis.

The security apparatus has civilian and military elements, both
accountable to elected authorities.  The National Guard, a
branch of the military, has arrest powers and is largely
responsible for guarding the exterior of prisons and key
government installations, maintaining order during times of
civil unrest, monitoring frontiers, and providing law
enforcement in remote areas.  It also supplies the top
leadership for the Metropolitan Police, the main civilian
police force in and around Caracas, and for various state and
municipal police forces.  The Interior Ministry controls the
State Security Police (DISIP) which is primarily responsible
for protecting public officials and investigating crimes
involving subversion, narcotics, and arms trafficking; and the
Justice Ministry controls the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ)
which conducts most criminal investigations.  Both police and
military personnel were responsible for human rights abuses
throughout the year.

The public sector dominates the economy, particularly the
petroleum industry, which accounts for some 22 percent of the
gross domestic product.  In response to a financial sector
crisis, the Government took control over half the banking
sector.  It also imposed foreign exchange controls and
temporary price controls on a number of basic necessities,
other products, and selected services.

Serious human rights abuses included incidents of extrajudicial
killings by the police and military, abuse of detainees, a
failure to punish police and security officers accused of
abuse, arbitrary and excessively lengthy detentions, corruption
and severe inefficiency in the judicial and law enforcement
systems, deplorable prison conditions, and a lack of respect
for the rights of indigenous people.  The civilian and military
courts made little progress towards prosecuting officials
responsible for the many killings during the two 1992 coup
attempts, the November 1992 Catia prison massacre, and the 1989
urban riots.  The authorities also took no action to prosecute
the perpetrators of the 1993 massacre of Yanomami Indians.

RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Section 1  Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including
           Freedom from:

     a.  Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing

There were no reports of targeted political killings, but
extrajudicial killings by the security forces continued.  The
Venezuelan Program for Action and Education in Human Rights
(PROVEA), one of Venezuela's most respected human rights
organizations, documented 148 extrajudicial killings from
October 1993 through September 1994.  The killings involved
summary executions, the indiscriminate or excessive use of
force, death in custody, death as a result of torture and
maltreatment, and death as a result of abuse during military or
public service.  According to PROVEA, the Metropolitan Police
carried out 46 of the killings; the State Police, 37; the
National Guard, 16; the PTJ, 15; the armed forces, 11; DISIP,
9; municipal police, 7; and other branches of the security
apparatus, 7.

The perpetrators of extrajudicial killings act with near
impunity, as the Government rarely prosecutes in such cases.
The police often fail to investigate crimes that they or their
law enforcement colleagues allegedly committed, and the
judicial system remains highly inefficient and sometimes
corrupt.  A special pretrial summary phase called "nudo hecho,"
used in cases involving public officials, often shields members
of the security forces from prosecution, as a case can languish
in that phase for several years.  In addition, military courts
are often strongly biased in favor of members of the armed
forces accused of abuse.  In the small number of prosecutions
in which the courts convict perpetrators of extrajudicial
killings and other abuses, the sentences issued are frequently
light, or, more commonly, the convictions are overturned on
appeal.  Unlike common prisoners, members of the security
forces charged with crimes rarely spend much time in prison.
The Government has not taken sufficient steps to overcome the
obstacles that permit continued impunity in cases of
extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuse.

One example of an alleged unpunished extrajudicial killing is
the case of Marcos Antonio Vivas Sayago.  A team of
approximately 20 uniformed and plainclothed members of the PTJ
and Metropolitan Police shot and killed him in his residence on
the morning of July 26.  The team reportedly threatened the
victim's family with reprisals should they report the
incident.  The family reported the case to the public
prosecutor/ombudsman's office ("Fiscalia General") which opened
an investigation.  There were no arrests, however, by year end.

Organized groups of police allegedly carried out many additional
unpunished extrajudicial killings.  Human rights organizations
reported that one such group, referred to as the "pantaneros"
by the local population, and comprised largely of members of
the metropolitan police, committed at least a dozen killings
during the year in poor areas of Caracas.

In May the Government arrested three members of the Caracas
Metropolitan Police allegedly responsible for the unlawful
shooting death of 15-year-old high school student German
Sotillo Rodriguez.  The case remained in the courts, with no
prosecutions by year's end.  Local human rights groups
expressed hope that the arrests indicated the Government would
be more forceful in prosecuting members of the security forces
accused of committing extrajudicial killings.  However, there
were few similar arrests throughout the year.

In April government investigators discovered a common grave
with an unspecified number of bodies in the remote Sierra de
Perija region of Zulia state.  At least one of the bodies
showed signs of execution-style killing.  The contents of the
grave were sent to Caracas for forensic examination, although
officials failed to identify the bodies positively or provide a
definite count of them by the end of the year.  Human rights
activists placed the number at around 15 and asserted that the
victims were likely poor farmers who had come into conflict
with large-scale ranchers in the area.  Although an ongoing
government investigation produced no arrests or charges, a
special rural contingent of the Zulia state police--which was
being financially subsidized by the ranchers--was alleged to
have committed the killings.  The governor of Zulia disbanded
the rural police largely as a result of this allegation.  A
number of persons have come forward with credible testimony in
recent years that there are additional common graves in the
Sierra de Perija and Catatumbo regions, and that the graves are
the result of killings by security forces to intimidate the
local population.  Subsequent government investigations have
produced no results.  Human rights groups related that local
farmers and indigenous people are afraid come forward with
additional information out of fear of reprisals.

In August an ad hoc military court acquitted 16 military and
police officers who shot and killed 14 fishermen in 1988 near
the border town of El Amparo.  The decision overturned an
already suspect 1993 ruling sentencing the defendants to only 7
1/2 years in prison for excessive use of force when the
circumstances of the killings strongly indicated an execution
rather than a military action.  Human rights monitors,
representatives of the victims, and the two survivors expressed
extreme dissatisfaction with the verdict, asserting that the
military court had disregarded crucial evidence and testimony
demonstrating that the event was a planned massacre.  Their
criticism of the verdict appears valid.  Despite the acquittal,
only nine of the defendants in the case were released--the
others remained in prison on charges of similar killings in
other areas.  Three other defendants did not stand trial as
they had gone into hiding and were fugitives from the law.

In January the Inter-American Court of Human Rights initiated a
trial against the Government involving its alleged
responsibility for not assuring justice in the El Amparo case.
The case was referred to the court by the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) which charged the Government
with failure to comply with several provisions in the American
Convention on Human Rights, including the obligation to protect
the lives, physical integrity, and equality under the law of
all citizens.  Prior to referring the case to the Court, the
IACHR reportedly made several recommendations which the
Government did not heed, including that the Government ensure
punishment for those responsible for the El Amparo killings,
compensate the survivors and victims' families, and reform the
military justice system to ensure independence and impartiality.

On January 15, 1995, the Court began formal proceedings in the
El Amparo case.  Three days later the Foreign Minister
acknowledged the State's responsibility and said the Government
would pay indemnities to the victims.  The Court then issued a
judgment taking note of the Government's declaration of
responsibility and instructing the Government to pay a just
indemnification to the surviving victims and the families of
the other victims, with the amount to be determined by
negotiations between the Government and the IACHR.

The Government withdrew charges against the rebel military
officers responsible for the two 1992 coup attempts.  The
authorities either released the military officers from jail or
allowed them to return from self-imposed exile.  No one was
prosecuted for the 34 reported extrajudicial killings and other
serious abuse, including torture, that occurred during the coup
attempts.  The Government failed to initiate a thorough
investigation of the human rights abuses perpetrated during the
coup attempts.

Likewise, the authorities never prosecuted or held anyone
responsible for the November 1992 killing of at least 63
prisoners at Catia prison.  The National Guard--erroneously
claiming that coup leaders had distributed arms there--stormed
the prison, opened cells, and fired on inmates.  The majority
of bodies found were reportedly shot at close range, suggesting
summary executions.  Apart from the officially recorded 63
prisoners killed, the fate of 25 others remains unknown--either
their bodies were not found or they escaped during or near the
time of the killings.

Although almost 6 years have elapsed, no progress has been made
on resolving the extrajudicial killings by security forces
during and after the civil unrest of February-March 1989.  The
Government maintained that 276 people died, while human rights
groups documented some 400 cases of persons dead or missing.
The authorities buried at least 68 victims anonymously in mass
graves.  Some human rights organizations accused the
authorities of doing this to conceal the identity and manner of
death of the victims and thus protect the perpetrators.
Although the bodies were exhumed in 1991, only three have been
positively identified.

Approximately 300 cases stemming from the 1989 killings
remained under consideration in military or civilian courts,
but only 1 has been adjudicated:  a police officer was found
guilty in 1991 of homicide and sentenced to 1 year's
imprisonment.  The Committee of Family Members of Victims of
the Riots (COFAVIC) continued to seek prosecutions and thorough
investigations of the 1989 deaths.  The Government still has
not initiated the effective investigation needed to resolve
these killings.

     b.  Disappearance

In 1994 PROVEA reported the following three unresolved
disappearances allegedly perpetrated by members of the security
forces:

In January members of the National Guard stopped 20-year-old
Elsida Ines Alvarez while she was driving between the towns of
San Cristobal and Valencia with her mother.  When she was
unable to produce her identity card, the National Guard took
her into custody, and she has not been seen or heard from
since.  Alvarez' mother repeatedly visited National Guard
headquarters to obtain information on her daughter's whereabouts
without success.  PROVEA was aware of no official
acknowledgment or investigation of the disappearance.

In March a group of armed men took 16-year-old Benjamin Vasquez
from his home, saying they were searching for weapons stolen
from the armed forces.  A few hours later, several of the men
returned to inform Vasquez' family that he had been detained,
although they did not specify by whom.  Vasquez has not been
seen or heard from since.  Through third parties, the family
heard that Military Intelligence (DIM) had taken him into
custody, but they were unable to find any record of his
detention and received no official acknowledgment of the
disappearance.

In April an unidentified man believed to be a member of DISIP
apprehended Fidel A. Sanabria in Tachira state.  Sanabria's
wife related that he was subsequently taken to the local PTJ
headquarters, although there was no record of his detention by
either DISIP or the PTJ.  Sanabria's whereabouts were not known
by the year's end.

One 1993 disappearance remained unresolved and uninvestigated.
According to Amnesty International (AI), 14-year-old Yolanda
Landino disappeared on March 27 following a military raid on
her house in the state of Zulia.  Her father Mario Landino, a
peasant leader, and her brother Henry had disappeared the
previous day.  Soldiers interrogated the family, accused them
of being guerrillas, and asked family members about Mario's
activities.  Although the family was under house detention,
Yolanda managed to leave the house; but soldiers reportedly
captured her the next day.  She was never seen again.  Her
father and brother were brutally tortured while in military
custody, including application of caustic substances to the
eyes (Mario is now almost blind) and injection of an unknown
substance that caused a burning sensation inside the body.
Soldiers told him Yolanda had been arrested and would be killed
if he did not confess.  Under duress he signed papers he could
not read--a "confession" to collaborating with guerrillas.  Mr.
Landino and his son were transferred to a police station on
April 4, 1993.  Mr. Landino remained in prison until March 1994
when he was provisionally released for lack of evidence.  Henry
Landino remains in prison awaiting trial on the basis of the
confession extorted under torture.  The public prosecutor/
ombudsman's office initiated an investigation of the Landino
case in November.  That office stated it was unaware of
Landino's disappearance and of the allegations of torture until
it received the AI information late in the year.

     c.  Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading
         Treatment or Punishment

The law prohibits torture, but security forces continue to
abuse detainees physically.  This abuse most commonly comprises
beatings during arrest or interrogation, but there have been
incidents when the security forces used caustic substances,
electric shock, near suffocation, and sexual abuse against
detainees.  In its November 1993 report, AI maintained that
torture and ill-treatment are widespread and sometimes fatal.
Most victims come from the poorest and least influential parts
of society, but political activists, student leaders, and
members of grassroots organizations have also been victimized
for their activities.  Red de Apoyo, a respected human rights
organization, reported 534 incidents of maltreatment and
torture from March 1993 through February 1994.  PROVEA,
discriminating between maltreatment and the more severe forms
of torture, documented 2.037 incidents of maltreatment and 39
cases of torture from October 1993 through September 1994.
Both organizations asserted, however, that the actual numbers
were higher, because many victims remain silent about abuse due
to fear of retribution.  According to PROVEA, the National
Guard was responsible for 15 of the reported torture incidents;
the State Police, 7; the PTJ, 6; the armed forces, 4; municipal
police, 3; military intelligence, 3; and DISIP, 1.

Torture, like extrajudicial killings, continues because the
Government does not ensure the independent investigation of
complaints needed to bring those responsible to justice.  In
addition to lack of vigor by the judiciary, the Institute of
Forensic Medicine is part of the PTJ, which prevents forensic
doctors from being impartial in their examinations of cases
where torture may have been involved.  Very few cases of
torture have resulted in convictions.

Four individuals arrested in August on charges of subversion
claimed that officials of the intelligence division of the
Carabobo state police tortured them.  According to local human
rights groups and the President of the Congressional
Subcommittee on Human Rights, Jose Manuel Flores, Luben
Sanchez, Jose Luis Sanchez, and Jose Gregorio Guedez were hung
by handcuffs from a ceiling, beaten, and subjected to electric
shocks applied to their tongues, testicles, and feet.  A local
human rights monitor who visited the four in the days after the
alleged abuse said their bodies were severely bruised and they
had visible abrasions on their lips, seeming to confirm the
accusations.  Family members of two of the victims filed
complaints with the public prosecutor/ombudsman's office,
although there was no known investigation of the alleged
torture by the end of the year.

Prison conditions continued to be deplorable, due to
underfunding, poorly trained staff, corruption among prison
staff and National Guard members, and overcrowding so severe as
to constitute inhumane and degrading treatment.  At year's end,
33 prisons held 23,554 inmates, of whom the courts had
sentenced only 7,508.  The Caracas main jail holds three times
its intended capacity.  Extreme overcrowding, inadequate diet,
minimal health care, and severe physical abuse by guards and by
other prisoners led to many prison riots.  Inmates often have
to pay guards as well as each other to obtain necessities such
as space in a cell, a bed, and food.  Guns, knives, and illegal
drugs are easily smuggled into most prisons, and violence among
prisoners is very common.

On January 3, a conflict between two gangs in Maracaibo's
Sabaneta prison escalated into a riot that left at least 105
inmates dead and scores wounded.  Most of the casualties
occurred in a cellblock the prisoners set on fire, although
there were additional deaths by shooting, stabbing, and
drowning in the sewage system.  Prison staff and the National
Guard were generally unwilling to enter the facility in the
months leading up to the riot, allowing a state of near anarchy
to develop.  In addition, during the riot, the National Guard
allegedly waited for at least 2 hours before entering to
restore order, permitting numerous additional casualties to
occur.  The government investigation of the incident led to
charges against 52 inmates and only 2 officials--1 member of
the National Guard and 1 prison employee.  No officials were
held responsible for the corruption and neglect that allowed
conditions at Sabaneta to deteriorate to such a low level.  As
a result of a Supreme Court ruling in September that the
National Guard member must be tried by a military court, that
court will also try the 53 other defendants.  It had reached no
verdict in the Sabaneta case by year's end.

Numerous other riots and incidents of violence resulted in
deaths in prisons almost daily.  PROVEA registered a total of
498 prisoners killed and another 1,127 wounded as a result of
violence from October 1993 through September 1994.  In January
9 inmates were killed and 11 wounded trying to escape from
Aragua prison.  In April an insurrection in Caracas' Catia
prison left 6 dead and 20 wounded, largely from a firebomb
ignited by inmates.

In December the Government announced it would temporarily
"militarize" six of the most violent penitentiaries in order to
prevent unrest during the holiday season, which usually is a
period of increased prison violence.  Consequently, the
National Guard--which is primarily responsible for guarding the
periphery of prisons--was ordered to maintain a strong presence
inside the prisons.  While the militarization was generally
perceived as a positive action to ensure order and prevent
additional prison deaths, there were several reports of
physical abuse of prisoners by members of the National Guard.
Inmates in San Juan Los Carlos prison filed a complaint with
the congressional human rights subcommittee and the public
prosecutor/ombudsman alleging that senior Justice Ministry
officials had ordered the National Guard to beat the prison
population with clubs and blunt saber-like devices called
"peinillas."

Throughout the year, the Government acknowledged the poor state
of prisons and announced several plans to improve conditions,
including major construction and renovation projects due to
begin in 1995.  In addition, many prison administrators were
replaced; the new prison director is a former human rights
director in the public prosecutor/ombudsman's office.
Nonetheless, funding for prisons remained extremely low, and
the Government's programs were not yet sufficient to improve
the deplorable conditions in most penitentiaries.

     d.  Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile

In the days immediately after the June 27 suspension of several
constitutional guarantees--including the freedom from arbitrary
arrest--the press and human rights groups reported the
detention and questioning of some 27 persons allegedly
suspected of plotting subversion.  The authorities held 20 of
the detainees for several hours, and the remaining 7 for over a
week.  Some of the detainees complained that the authorities
intimidated them because of their affiliation with a movement
led by the released leaders of the February 1992 coup attempt.

The press and human rights groups also reported a large number
of arbitrary detentions during anticrime sweeps in impoverished
areas by the Metropolitan Police, DISIP, the National Guard,
and the PTJ.  The authorities detained persons during the
sweeps for from a few hours to up to 2 days while they checked
criminal records; they released the majority without charges.
While such sweeps had been conducted in previous years, the
security forces greatly increased the frequency and size of the
operations during the suspension of guarantees.  PROVEA
documented 6,306 people detained during sweeps from October
1993 through September 1994; there were 250 such detentions in
the previous 12-month period.

The law provides for the right to judicial determination of the
legality of detention; however, the police may hold persons
without an arrest warrant for up to 8 days, and the courts may
hold them up to an additional 8 days in court custody.  In many
reported cases, the police have physically and psychologically
abused detainees during the initial 8-day period and illegally
held them incommunicado.  During the second 8-day period a
judge may, on the basis of the police investigation, order
either a formal arrest or the person's release.  Arbitrary
arrests are common, and authorities sometimes exceed the time
limits for holding suspects.  Prisoners often have to pay fees
extorted by prison officials for transportation to judicial
proceedings at which formal charges are made.  Detainees unable
to pay are frequently unable to get to their judicial hearings.

The 1939 Vagrancy Law permits the detention for up to 5 years,
without warrant, trial, or judicial appeal, of people deemed by
the police to be a danger to society but against whom there is
no evidence of a punishable crime.  This law is susceptible to
arbitrary and discriminatory interpretation, and police often
apply it against people with previous criminal records who are
detained during police sweeps.  AI noted that many detainees
under this law, jailed merely on suspicion, are subjected to
torture.  In May the Interior Minister urged police to continue
to use the Vagrancy Law as a deterrent against crime until the
Government and Congress approve an alternative.  In October the
Ministry of Justice reported there were 187 persons in jail
under the Vagrancy Law.  This figure did not reflect the total
number arrested under the law and then released.

Forced exile is illegal and is not practiced.

     e.  Denial of Fair Public Trial

The law provides for the right to a fair trial and considers
the accused innocent until proven guilty in a court.  The
justice system, however, is overburdened, inefficient,
afflicted by the corruption of some judges, and lacking in
public credibility.  Case backlogs and lengthy pretrial
detentions averaging 4 1/2 years are the norm.  Judges are
underpaid, poorly disciplined, and susceptible to political
influence.  The law provides for public defenders for those
unable to afford an attorney, but there are not enough public
defenders to handle the caseload.  The Judicial Council, which
governs the judicial branch, stated that there are 150 public
defense attorneys with an average of 170 active cases each, but
some have as many as 250 cases.

The judicial process is written, requiring the costly and
time-consuming production of voluminous reports at every stage
by judges, attorneys, and witnesses.  The civilian judiciary is
legally independent, but the major political parties influence
the judicial selection process and decisions in particular
cases.

Military courts can try civilians in cases of armed subversion
and in cases which involve armed forces members.  Military
courts are subject to a requirement for a speedy trial and a
statute of limitations similar to that of civilian courts.
Persons convicted by a military court have the same right of
appeal to the Supreme Court as those under the civilian
system.  Military courts, however, are significantly different
from civilian courts in that by law the President must review
every case after the initial investigation stage and decide if
that case will go to trial.  Human rights groups assert that
this gives the executive excessive power to intervene in
military cases.  In addition, the Supreme Court selects
military judges from a list provided by the Minister of
Defense, a process which links the careers of military judges
to the high command.  The tendencies of military judges to be
responsive to the views of their military leaders, to maintain
procedural secrecy, and to act slowly in high-profile cases in
which the military is implicated make it unlikely that
defendants undergo an impartial or timely prosecution.  These
factors can and do result in military offenders evading
punishment for extrajudicial killings and other human rights
abuses.

     f.  Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
         Correspondence

Constitutional provisions prohibit arbitrary interference with
privacy, family, home, and correspondence.  After the
Government suspended the freedom from search without warrant on
June 27, however, the press reported a number of incidents of
searches without warrants by security forces.  According to the
media, DISIP searched the homes of a prominent Caracas
businessman and of a noted intellectual, and the DIM similarly
searched 30 homes in the city of Cumana.  In recent years,
there have been some complaints of telephone surveillance, and
human rights monitors accused the security forces of illegal
wiretapping.  In September the Interior Minister announced that
the telephones in his office were being wiretapped, apparently
by former employees of his Ministry.