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<h1 id="reader-title">Government Probe into POLICHACAO Reveals
US Police Training and Embassy Links</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">By Jeanette Charles</div>
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<p dir="ltr">Caracas, June 7, 2016<br>
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<p dir="ltr">In the initial phase of the 90 day-probe into
Chacao’s municipal police force (POLICHACAO), President
Nicolás Maduro <a
href="http://rnv.gob.ve/escandalo-en-polichacao-sepa-que-se-consiguio-en-primera-auditoria/%20">made
public evidence </a>revealing that local officers are
training with United States police and are in daily
communication with the US Embassy. </p>
<p dir="ltr">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.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“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. </p>
<p dir="ltr">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”.</p>
<p dir="ltr">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 <span>largely upper middle class </span>municipality
of Chacao on the east side of Caracas.</p>
<p dir="ltr">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.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“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.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Irregularities violate police norms</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">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.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“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.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The weapon used to kill Major General
Vélazquez was also found among weapons at the police
headquarters.</p>
<p dir="ltr">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.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Israeli involvement?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">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.</p>
<p dir="ltr">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.</p>
<p dir="ltr">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.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Additionally, in Colombia, there is
considerable research and reporting into <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2003/06/2008491463219614.html">Israeli
training</a> not only of police and military officials
but also paramilitary units. <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/07/20137717429632532.html">Israel
is known for</a> its supply of guns, planes and other
weapon systems throughout Latin America and the
Caribbean.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a
href="ttp://thefreethoughtproject.com/u-s-police-routinely-travel-israel-learn-methods-brutality-repression%20">US
sheriffs, police officers,</a> US Customs and Border
Protection and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Units
have regularly traveled to Israel to learn <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-export-occupation-police-tactics/8485">the
latest in “counter-terrorism” </a>techniques as well.
</p>
<p class="published">Published on Jun 7th 2016 at 8.38am </p>
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