The report, from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), on Venezuela has led to a number of debates about the state of civil and political rights. One of the many contributions of Bachelet’s report, is the presentation of previously unknown figures of homicides and deaths at the hands of the state security forces for 2018.
The Venezuelan government reported a total of 10, 598 homicides in 2018. However, this figure, like that of 2017, doesn’t include those who were killed by the state security forces who were deemed to be resisting the authorities.
This means that the number of state homicides appears as a third less than it actually is. Omitting the figures of those killed by the state security forces is not only a cover up of the real figure but also a way of concealing serious human rights violations. When the 5,287 deaths caused by the state security forces are added to the official figures, the total number of homicides amounts to 15,885.
