[News] Venezuelan Probe Reveals US Police Training and Embassy Links as well as training by Israeli forces

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/12015


  Government Probe into POLICHACAO Reveals US Police Training and
  Embassy Links

By Jeanette Charles

Caracas, June 7, 2016

In the initial phase of the 90 day-probe into Chacao’s municipal police 
force (POLICHACAO), President Nicolás Maduro made public evidence 
<http://rnv.gob.ve/escandalo-en-polichacao-sepa-que-se-consiguio-en-primera-auditoria/%20>revealing that 
local officers are training with United States police and are in daily 
communication with the US Embassy.

National police authorities opened an investigation into the 
opposition-controlled municipality's police force following the murder 
of Army Major General Félix Velásquez allegedly at the hands of 
POLICHACAO officers on Sunday, May 29 in Santa Mónica, Caracas.

“We found that a group of officials and officers are training in the 
United States, sent by the US Embassy. We found a connection between the 
Director and Sub-Director, [along with] daily conversations with the US 
Embassy,” said Maduro from the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense 
in the nation's capital.

The South American leader accused POLICHACAO of being at the center of a 
criminal conspiracy, denouncing the police department's links to what he 
termed "paramilitary criminal bands”.

Maduro criticized right-wing Chacao Mayor Ramón Machado for his alleged 
lack of initiative in resolving the issues within the Polichacao 
department, citing the experience of Venezuela's violent 2013 and 2014 
opposition protests known as the guarimbas. Polichacao serves the 
largely upper middle class municipality of Chacao on the east side of 
Caracas.

At that time, the Venezuelan government condemned Machado and other 
opposition mayors for failing to fulfill their constitutional 
responsibilities to ensure people’s safe transit and the protection of 
public as well as private property. Their officers have been accused of 
actively participating, supporting or failing to prevent guarimba protests.

“How much this Mayor, Ramon Muchacho, knows about this, I don’t believe 
anything he says, they are experts in the “I didn’t do it”, the 
oligarchy who order to kill and then wash their hands,” said Maduro.

*Irregularities violate police norms*

Similarly, Minister for Interior Relations, Justice and Peace Gustavo 
González López detailed other irregularities. He said that authorities 
have found: five 9mm calibre pistols with erased serial numbers as well 
as seventeen 9mm pistols and thirty 12mm rifles that were not declared 
to the General Direction of Arms and Explosives (DAEX) as inoperative. 
He also denounced the disappearance of 27,500 9mm cartridges.

“Arms are going astray for criminal ends,” the Minister stressed. “This 
irregularity allows for the reuse of parts and pieces that could alter 
the results of criminal investigations which could benefit the authors 
[of these crimes], the illicit sale [of weapons] and other criminal 
practices, violating the norms which police units are obliged to follow 
including the registration, report and return of arms in disuse,” 
González emphasized.

The weapon used to kill Major General Vélazquez was also found among 
weapons at the police headquarters.

González also announced that during the investigation, a new POLICHACAO 
police chief will serve starting Monday June 6th. The Venezuelan 
government’s probe into the municipal police will continue for a 
remaining eight weeks.

*Israeli involvement?*

Citing an unnamed source, the Venezuelan newspaper Últimas Noticias 
published last Wednesday that in addition to US training, a group of 
POLICHACAO officers have also allegedly received training by Israeli forces.

The US and Israel have gained notoriety for their involvement in 
training and financing state security forces across the Americas, 
fueling allegations of rampant human rights abuses, repression and 
counterinsurgency tactics.

In Honduras, social movements have denounced the US role in the 
militarization and policing of their country which have contributed to 
the death of hundreds of human rights activists, indigenous peoples and 
farmers. The US School of the Americas (also known as the Western 
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) was responsible in the 
training of Honduran military officials such as Romeo Vázquez Vélazquez 
who carried out the 2009 coup d’état against democratically elected 
President Manuel Zelaya.

Additionally, in Colombia, there is considerable research and reporting 
into Israeli training 
<http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2003/06/2008491463219614.html> not 
only of police and military officials but also paramilitary units. 
Israel is known for 
<http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/07/20137717429632532.html> its 
supply of guns, planes and other weapon systems throughout Latin America 
and the Caribbean.

US sheriffs, police officers, 
<ttp://thefreethoughtproject.com/u-s-police-routinely-travel-israel-learn-methods-brutality-repression%20> US 
Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Bureau of Investigation 
Units have regularly traveled to Israel to learn the latest in 
“counter-terrorism” 
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-export-occupation-police-tactics/8485>techniques 
as well.

Published on Jun 7th 2016 at 8.38am

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20160608/26765f58/attachment.htm>