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RED VZLA Urgent Request to the OTP-3

REDACTED Page 6 of 190 Information will be presented to demonstrate the collusion between the judiciary and the Presidency which has been denounced by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and secondly to show how pervasive this form of persecution was throughout the Venezuelan territories since February 2014. The widespread violent repression and massive crack down on protestors has been denounced by many local and international NGOs including Foro Penal, IFEX,6 HRW, Amnesty International as well as regional organizations such as the OAS7 and the Inter American Court. But the GoV has been ignoring calls for moderation, refused to make reforms and despite promises for investigation and prosecution of perpetrators has made no significant progress. The growing number of arbitrary arrests and incidents of violence and persecution continued to escalate the demonstrations after February 2014 until July 2015 after which the number of demonstrations decreased but the repression continued by other means. Despite the widespread reports of crimes committed by GoV national security forces and pro government armed paramilitaries, in January 2015, the GoV implemented a new military strategy authorizing the use of lethal force on protesters and deployed untrained military officers against the protestors in February 2015 when civilians took the streets again to commemorate the anniversary of the start of the protests causing more deaths, casualties and arbitrary arrests. The significant amount of corroborated open source information available confirms that the incidents presented meet the threshold for constituting at least the crimes against humanity of: a) murder pursuant to Article 7(a); b) imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law pursuant to Article 7(e); c) torture pursuant to Article 7(f); d) persecution against any identifiable group on political grounds pursuant to Article 7 (h); and 6 See, for example: IFEX. (2014) Government gets aggressive with media in attempt to hide violence in Venezuela. [ONLINE] 14 February. Available from: https://www.ifex.org/venezuela/2014/02/14/protests_violent_caracas [Accessed 19 October, 2015]; See also: IFEX. (2015) Profile: Rayma Suprani. International Freedom of Expression Exchange. [ONLINE] 29 September. Available from: https://www.ifex.org/venezuela/ [Accessed 19 October, 2015] 7 OAS Permanent Council, 7 March 2014 says they reject “all forms of violence and intolerance, while calling on all sectors for peace, calm and respect for human rights and fundamental liberties including the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, freedom of movement, health and education”

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