VENEZUELA. OFFICERS SACKED FOR EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS

Venezuelan Interior Minister Jesse Chacon announced the removal from their posts of nine military officers and a police commander "for causing and falsifying the executions of three youths," whose deaths were originally said to have occurred during a confrontation with supposed criminals.
"The government does not have the words to apologize," said Chacon at a press conference on what happened on July 27 during an operation by soldiers from the military intelligence division, known as DIM, and federal police. The soldiers and policemen "gave the three university students a beating and then murdered them" with their firearms, he said. In addition, Chacon said that "in this catastrophe, they forged evidence and altered facts to change the homicides into a confrontation" with criminals. "The government promises" that the 29 soldiers and police arrested in connection with the case "will receive the full weight of the law."
The leader of the human rights group PROVEA, Carlos Correa, had complained that the police and soldiers "did not seek justice but, apparently, revenge, because allegedly a DIM official had been murdered earlier and the youths were confused with the killers." PROVEA said that in 2004, for every policeman or soldier killed on duty, 45 civilians died in actions depicted as "clashes" that were in fact extrajudicial executions.