| AI INDEX: AMR 53/005/2002 10 May 2002 |
PUBLIC AI Index: AMR 53/005/2002
UA 142/2002 Fear for safety/ill treatment
10 May 2002
VENEZUELA Luis Martínez, aged 27 (m)
Marvin Rangel, aged 20 (m)
Maiker Enrique Duno, aged 19 (m)
The three men named above were arbitrarily
detained and beaten by police in Sucre on 30 April.
The police threatened to kill them if they
reported what had happened. Since then the same
police officers have been harassing them, and
Amnesty International believes their lives may be
in danger.
The 30 April incident occurred when Sucre
municipal policemen in plain clothes stopped the
men and then took them to the main police station
in Sucre in a white jeep with no number plates.
There, ten plainclothes officers made them kneel
down, and beat them repeatedly around the head and
upper body, using fists and hard objects. They
were also kicked all over their bodies. The
officers told the young men that if they reported
what had happened, they would kill them.
The victims were apparently kept in a room at the
station for several hours. The police accused them
of being ''azotes de barrio'' (scum of the
neighbourhood) and ''ladrones de camionetas'' (van
thieves) before they let them go.
Since then, the young men have reported that some
of the same police officers are attempting to
intimidate them. Some of the officers have waited
near where the men work, and stared at them in a
threatening manner.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The Venezuelan Constitution expressly prohibits
the use of torture, but the government has not
passed any legislation to make acts of torture a
criminal offence.