CARACAS — A leading human rights group says Venezuelan police committed widespread abuses during a nationwide crime crackdown last year in which 245 people dead.
Human Rights Watch published a report yesterday in conjunction with the Venezuelan group PROVEA documenting what they call a pattern of illegal killings, arbitrary detentions, and wrongful evictions during 2015's "Operation to Liberate and Protect the People."
The group detailed 20 cases in which witnesses say police killed civilians who were unarmed or in the process of surrendering.
The Venezuelan government acknowledges that 245 people were killed during the campaign, but has not said under what circumstances. The public prosecutor's office announced this year that it was investigating the killings.
The Human Rights Watch report describes cases of police robbing people's homes, forcing people not charged with any crime to kneel in the sun or lie on the ground for hours, and beating people for no apparent reason.
"It also shows that the unchecked exercise of power by the executive in Venezuela has left people of all political stripes — including government supporters in low-income communities — defenseless in the face of abusive government policies and practices," Human Rights Watch America's director Jose Miguel Vivanco said.
The government says the anti-crime campaign launched in July 2015 allowed it to wrest back control from gangs nationwide.
Residents of communities targeted by the operation complained of police abuse last year, but many crime-weary Venezuelans supported the initiative despite indications that innocent people were being swept up along with criminals.
Venezuela has one of the world's highest murder rates, and people here broadly support iron-fist policing. And it's the poor, those more likely to be caught in the crossfire, who most want to see greater use of force, according to national polls.
While police generally acknowledge when they kill someone, it is not always clear that the slaying was committed in self-defense.
Police detained more than 14,000 people during last year's campaign, but only charged 100 of those with crimes. Human Rights Watch said the discrepancy between those numbers suggests police were indiscriminately arresting thousands of people.
The government also bulldozed hundreds of homes during the operation, saying it was taking steps to take control of communities run by criminals.