According to a report by the Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy, 57.2% of political prisoner cases they are officers of the National Armed Forces (FAN), which shows that, in recent years, there have been more arrests (for political reasons) of military personnel than of civilians.
“Of these 193 people, 7 are women and 186 are male (…) regarding ranks, the majority are captains and sergeants,” explained Ana Leonor Acosta, a member of the Coalition.
The lawyer stressed that in 95% of the cases “the same crimes are charged”, including treason, rebellion and instigation of rebellion.
“The intention is to prosecute these people for going against the established system and this is what gives us the connotation of military political prisoners,” he explained when presenting the report on military justice in Venezuela.
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The report showed that there are “4 patterns” of human rights violations and 3 of them “fit perfectly” within the notion of crimes against humanity defined in Article 7 of the Rome Statute, highlighted Kelvi Zambrano, a member of the Coalition.
The lawyer argued that, in 90% of cases, military political prisoners are victims of forced disappearances, “considered a crime against humanity” and one of the criminal types prohibited by the Convention against Forced Disappearance of the Organization of United Nations. United (UN).
“The other pattern of behavior is torture and this is perhaps one of the most serious (…) we have been able to describe how these people are tortured, let us remember that torture is a crime that is also considered an international criminal offense according to to the Rome Statute,” Zambrano warned.
Zambrano explained that the cases of torture carried out by the Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy have been presented to the Ombudsman’s Office, without obtaining any response, so they have gone to international bodies.
“The people who are victims of torture today suffer from serious pathologies from the psychiatric, psychological, and biological point of view because the State, in addition to failing to comply with its primary responsibility, which is to investigate, has not repaired these people,” said.
military justice
According to the investigation, since 2017 not only has an increase in the arrests of officers of the National Armed Forces been detected, but also civilians are brought before the military jurisdiction, evidencing significant violations of fundamental rights.
Although the National Assembly with a Chavista majority recently approved the reform of the Organic Code of Military Justice, which, according to the Coalition, “intends to solve” the prosecution of civilians in the military jurisdiction, they assure that the situation persists.
“This highly questioned reform not only because of the way it was approved but also because of its purpose of sending the cases of civilians submitted to military jurisdiction to ordinary jurisdiction did not resolve that civilians be submitted to military justice, they continue to being tried today for military crimes,” Acosta said.
The human rights defender stressed that military justice in Venezuela has structural defects, because “it is directed by the President of the Republic and the Minister of Defense.”
“Which means that it is subject to the Executive Power and this prevents the impartiality and independence that the judiciary should have,” he pointed out.
Last year, the National Assembly with a Chavista majority approved the reform of a package of laws to transform the justice system and, as they explained, increase the rights of ordinary citizens.
Members of civil society consider that the implemented reforms seek to “evade” the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
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