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title: ""Venezuelan special forces have carried out thousands of…"
date: 2019-07-05
source: facebook
type: Archer T. Ships shared a link.
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# "Venezuelan special forces have carried out thousands of…

*July 5, 2019 · Facebook*

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[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/04/world/americas/venezuela-police-abuses.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/04/world/americas/venezuela-police-abuses.html){target="_blank"}
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\"Venezuelan special forces have carried out thousands of extrajudicial killings in the past 18 months and then manipulated crime scenes to make it look as if the victims had been resisting arrest, the United Nations said on Thursday in a report detailing wide-ranging government abuses targeting political opponents.\
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Special Action Forces described by witnesses as "death squads" killed 5,287 people in 2018 and another 1,569 by mid-May of this year, in what are officially termed by the Venezuelan government "Operations for the Liberation of the People," United Nations investigators reported.\
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Laying out a detailed description of a lawless system of oppression, the report says the actual number of deaths could be much higher. It cites accounts by independent groups who report more than 9,000 killings for "resistance to authority" over the same period.\
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The report comes two weeks after Ms. Bachelet visited Venezuela. Its hard-hitting tone was especially eye-opening, given her political background. In her second term as Chile's left-leaning president from 2014 to 2018, she was among the few South American leaders who refused to openly criticize Mr. Maduro's growing authoritarianism.\
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The Venezuelan government had tried to use Ms. Bachelet's visit to bolster Mr. Maduro's international legitimacy. More than 50 nations, including the United States, have stopped recognizing him as Venezuela's legitimate leader, calling his re-election last year fraudulent.\
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Ms. Bachelet's team was given unusual access inside Venezuela, unlike that given to her predecessor or to other United Nations agencies. Mr. Maduro heavily publicized his meeting with Ms. Bachelet and promised to consider allowing her to open a full-time office in the country. The government also agreed to allow two United Nations human rights staff members to work in the country and said it would give them full access to detention centers.\"
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