Photos Emerge Showing Venezuela's 'Death Squad' with Lifeless Bodies, Victims Described as Anti-Government Protesters
Photos Emerge Showing Venezuela's 'Death Squad' with Lifeless Bodies, Victims Described as Anti-Government Protesters
“If there’s still any doubt about whether the Maduro regime is a dictatorship, FAES should prove that it is,” said AS/COA's Guillermo Zubillaga about Venezuela.
In what Venezuela experts call a sign of President Nicolas Maduro's desperate attempts to cling to power, special National Police squads dressed in black masks and uniforms this year apparently began targeting protesters.
Since January, more than 40 deaths – many of which occurred during the mass protests against Maduro - have been linked to the special police force, which uses military weapons and is known as the “Death Squad.”
They also are known as the FAES —the Spanish acronym for the Bolivarian National Police’s Special Action Forces...
Experts on Venezuela say that FAES’s brutality in the poorest neighborhoods, where Chavez enjoyed some of the strongest support, shows how threatened Maduro feels.
“FAES is effectively one the main pillars of the Maduro regime,” said Guillermo Zubillaga, head of the Venezuela Working Group for Americas Society/Council of the Americas. “It’s one of the few remaining security forces in Venezuela willing to follow the orders they receive from Maduro. Other security forces are not following orders, knowing the rejection of Maduro by many Venezuelans. But the rule of law does not apply to FAES, they act with impunity.”
“If there’s still any doubt about whether the Maduro regime is a dictatorship, FAES should prove that it is.”...
