The President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, leads, at the Theater of the Military Academy of Venezuela, the act of commemoration of Crime Investigator Day, in which he is awarded the Honor Order of Merit and the Crime Investigator Order, members of the Scientific, Penal and Forensic Investigation Corps (Cicpc) for their outstanding work to prevent crime and combat this scourge.
This Thursday, February 23, marks the 65th anniversary of the investigative body attached to the Ministry of the Interior, Justice and Peace, and the scientific, criminal and criminalistic work in the investigations that the Cicpc investigators have faced is recognized.
Along with the president were the first combatant, Cilia Flores, the Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace and Vice President of Government for Citizen Security, A/J Remigio Ceballos Ichaso, as well as the director of the Cicpc, General Commissioner Douglas Rico.
“I want to congratulate all the officials and all the officials who have earned with their effort and their quality these decorations and these recognitions that we have given today,” highlighted the president.
After Commissioner Rico pointed out that February 20, the date on which the former Judicial Technical Police (PTJ) was founded, is a day chosen by the Cicpc to recognize the work of its agents, the head of state recalled the refoundation of the Venezuelan Judicial Police through the 1999 Constitution and recognized that the PTJ, founded in 1958, previously existed, which forms the basis of the current police institution.
Maduro pointed out that, to honor those who gave their lives and those who still do so, from now on February 20 the work of those who carry out this hard work in all the institutions that have criminal investigators will be recognized.
First female fighter congratulated criminal investigators
President Maduro recalled that the first combatant, Cilia Flores, was a PTJ detective and highlighted her powers as an agent of the former detective body from which the current Cicpc is derived.
In this regard, the also deputy to the National Assembly, stressed that the Cicpc is recognized worldwide as one of the best research bodies.
Flores pointed out that she herself has been an eyewitness that when there is a crime scene and the Cicpc arrives, the experience allows them to quickly determine “what happened and they find their way around without ruling out any hypothesis, but the official is a bloodhound, he arrives and knows what happened and asks himself ‘Who benefits from this crime?’ and he has intuition, “she said and assured that what she learned during her experience as a detective she still retains.
The first combatant stressed that the Judicial Police is a school and said that there she learned to work as a team and trust her safety and her life to her companions.
He pointed out that working as a detective for the PTJ was “an experience in which one grows, learns the values of life because one is in contact with death”, and referred to the mystique with which the officials all leave the days “to risk their lives to clarify a case and then investigate a file” that will go to court so that there is no impunity.
He urged the officials of the Cicpc and the rest of the State Security bodies to continue their work with ethics and camaraderie because “as the world says and we also say it here… you are the best and in Venezuela we have the Cicpc with international recognition.”
“Congratulations today and every day,” added the first combatant.
Rico highlighted the mystique of the Cicpc in the face of difficulties
Commissioner Douglas Rico, director of the Cicpc, highlighted the efforts of the investigative body in the face of the difficulties derived from the blockade illegally imposed against the country. He highlighted the provision of adequate equipment and vehicles for all Cicpc components, including the Special Actions Brigade (BAE).
He congratulated the women and men who deliver their work in favor of Justice in the country and thanked “all the support for all the resources” that the body recently obtained from the national government.
He highlighted the acquisition of an electronic scanning microscope “that will allow us to analyze a large number of elements and evidence that we had delayed,” he said, recalling the impact on detective work due to the blockade and the criminal unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela.
“Two teams remotely paralyzed us,” Rico said, and explained that the instruments allowed ballistic analysis “but before that we reinvented ourselves and took out the old microscopes… some were updated and we returned to the old system, because we are not going to give up, in middle of the crisis due to the blockade,” he explained.
He highlighted the case of the recovery of a vital microscope for the investigations for which they asked for two thousand dollars for its repair, which was repowered, with the help of an engineer, for only $200 and included a lighting device to improve it.
Rico thanked the national government for its effort to update scientific research in the country and pointed out that the BAE received, among other state-of-the-art equipment, night vision devices, drones and telescopic sights “that we had never had,” he said.
Respect for human rights
He explained that the equipment that recently arrived at the institution, whose arrival registers a delay of five months as a result of the blockade, after being installed will allow the processing of some 12,000 tests to verify through ATD (Analysis of Gunshot Traces) the participation or not officials in alleged irregularities that would involve violation of human rights.
Rico highlighted that the Cicpc’s date of birth was November 24, 2001 after its inclusion in the 1999 Constitution promoted by Commander Hugo Chávez during his first term and assured that since then old vices of the old PTJ have been fought It opened 65 years ago, while preserving the positive aspects of the predecessor institution.
The commissioner assured that with respect to the old PTJ, the Cicpc now has improvements based on projects and protocols that did not exist before and is working to improve “research techniques in terms of common sense… logic, inductive systems… and so on. We are moving forward” so that the country registers a high crime resolution rate.
“We have improved in terms of attention and processes to avoid human rights violations… if at any time the Cicpc was pointed out for a situation where human rights were violated, today, like the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) and the other State institutions are there to show their faces… framed within the protection of human rights,” said Rico, recalling that this is part of Chávez’s legacy.
He pointed out the role of the National Experimental Security University in the training of members of the Cicpc, the PNB and other institutions to guarantee respect for the fundamental rights of Venezuelans.
He referred to how, currently, all police institutions and all State security agencies have criminal investigators, so the “Crime Investigator’s Day in Venezuela” is not limited exclusively to the Cicpc.
