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Urgent campaigns / Urgent Interventions / Venezuela / 2011 / February

Venezuela: Allegations of torture against a 16-year-old girl and her father in order to obtain statements in Caracas

​Case VEN 040211.CC/ VEN 040211_ENG[1]

CHILD CONCERN/ URGENT CAMPAIGNS

Allegations of torture and ill-treatment/ Threats and acts of intimidation/

Serious fear for safety and personal integrity

 

The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Venezuela.

Brief description of the situation

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by Red de Apoyo por la Justicia y la Paz (REDAPOYO) a member of OMCT SOS-Torture Network, about allegations of torture and ill-treatment inflicted on the teenage girl Francis Daniela Núñez Martínez, 16 years old, and her father Mr. Daniel Antonio Núñez, aiming at extracting information, and about serious fear for the safety and, physical and psychological integrity of the aforementioned girl, her father and all other members of her family. The events happened in the community of Brisas de Petare, in the city of Caracas.

According to the information received, on 29 January 2011, a birthday party for Francis Daniela Núnez Martínez was being held in Mr. Daniel Antonio Núñez’s house. According the same information, a group of approximate 80 persons gathered around the house, although they had not been invited to the party and were unknown to the family. Around 3.30 a.m. gunshots were heard outside the house. It was known afterwards that a young girl, whose name remains unknown, and who had not been invited to the party and was unknown to anyone of Francis Daniela’s family, was shot. The girl died afterwards in the Domingo Luciani Hospital.

The following day, on 30 January 2010, around 11.30 a.m., a group of six to eight uniformed members of the investigative police (Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas (CICPC)) arrived at Mr. Daniel Antonio Núñez’s house and started to make questions regarding the previous night’s events. They noted down Mr. Daniel Antonio Núñez’s, his daughter Francis Daniela Núnez Martínez’s and Jesus Alberto Vivas’, a cousin of hers, personal data and a summoning was handed over to them to appear the very same day to testify at the CICPC quarters.

Mr. Daniel Antonio Núñez, Francis Daniela Núnez Martínez and Mr. Jesus Alberto Vivas went to CICPC quarters around 12 o’clock, where they were separated and put in separate rooms. Mr. Daniel Antonio Núñez remained seated for around two hours until he was ordered to clear his trouser pockets. Mr. Núñez’s mobile phone was also seized. Afterwards two other members of the investigative police arrived asking him what he had seen and who had shot at the young girl. Mr. Núñez answered that he didn’t know, because he wasn’t present at the place where the events occurred. He was subsequently grossly insulted and taken to yet another office.

After being ordered to take off his shoelaces and his belt, members of the investigative police, started again to ask Mr. Núñez who had shot the girl, insisting that he did know who the perpetrator was. Mr. Núñez repeated that he didn’t know, following which he was beaten on the neck and several times in the face. They went on threatening him with raping his daughter, putting afterwards a black bag over his head, having roped his hands before, so as to asphyxiate him. Finally, Mr. Núñez signed and put his digital prints on a statement after having read it.

In the meantime, in another room, Francis Daniela Núñez Martínez was being interrogated by three male members of the investigative police without the presence of her mother or of a prosecutor of the Attorney General’s Office, despite being a minor. She was asked who wore a short-sleeved, black and white chequered shirt. When she answered that she didn’t know, the members of the investigative police went on with the interrogation, and after binding her hands together with a belt, they asked the same questions again. The girl denied again any knowledge and consequently the members of the investigative police threatened her to accuse her of drug-dealing. Francis Daniela Núñez Martínez, after hearing that her father was being beaten in the other room, declared that she did see the young man with the shirt near the fence at the house taking out a gun. Francis Daniela signed and put her finger prints on a statement that she did not read.

There is currently no information on what happened with Mr. Jesus Alberto Vivas.

The International Secretariat of OMCT firmly condemns the allegations of ill-treatment and physical and psychological torture inflicted on Mr. Daniel Antonio Núñez and the minor Francis Daniela Núñez Martínez. OMCT is deeply concerned about their safety and physical and psychological integrity and that of other members of the Núñez Martínez family, of Mr. Jesús Alberto Vivas, and of all witnesses of the above-mentioned events, and as such, calls on the highest competent authorities of Venezuela to take the necessary steps to guarantee these.

OMCT urges that the statements given by Francis Daniela Núñez and her father Mr. Daniel Antonio Núñez be declared null and void, as they were coerced with threats, ill-treatment and psychological torture; if necessary, Francis Daniela Núñez Martínez should be given the opportunity to testify again in the presence of a prosecutor of the Attorney General’s Office competent in child protection matters in order to guarantee her right. OMCT further calls upon the Venezuelan authorities to ensure that Francis Daniela Núñez Martínez, Mr. Daniel Antonio Núñez and Mr. Jesús Alberto Vivas, be examined by a doctor to conduct physical and psychological examinations.

OMCT urges the competent authorities of Venezuela to carry out a prompt, effective, thorough, independent and impartial investigation into these events, and that its conclusions are made public, in order to identify those responsible, to bring them before an independent, competent and impartial civilian court, and to apply the criminal, civil and/or administrative sanctions provided for by law.

OMCT recalls to the authorities to conform with Venezuelas’s international human rights obligations, in this case in particular, the right not to be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and to bringing to justice those responsible for violating these rights.

Action requested

Please write to the authorities in Venezuela urging them to:

         i.                  Take the most appropriate measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of the minor Francis Daniela Núñez Martínez, Mr. Daniel Antonio Núñez, Mr. Jesús Alberto Vivas and the other members of the family, in particular of Ms. Alina Martínez and as well as of all the other people who have witnessed theses facts;

       ii.                  Carry out a prompt, effective, thorough, independent and impartial investigation into the aforementioned human rights violations, the result of which must be made public, in order to bring those responsible before a competent, independent and impartial tribunal and apply penal, civil and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;

      iii.                  Declare null and void the statements given by the minor Francis Daniela Núñez Martínez and Mr. Daniel Antonio Núñez, which were as mentioned before obtained under coercion and physical and psychological torture. If necessary Francis Daniela should be given the opportunity to testify again in presence of a prosecutor of the Attorney General’s Office, competent in child protection matters in order to guarantee her rights;

     iv.                  Guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards.

 

Addresses

·         President of the Republic, H.E. Hugo Chávez Frías. Palacio de Miraflores, Caracas,

      Venezuela; Fax: + 58 212 806 3698 E-mail: dggcomunicacional@presidencia.gob.ve

         Tel.: + 58 212 806 3111 + 58 212 806 3229

·         Citizen Luisa Ortega Díaz, General Attorney of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Esquina de Misericordia a Pele el Ojo. Av. México. Caracas. E-mail: mp@fiscalia.gov.ve Fax: + 58 212 575 4467 Tels.: + 58 212 509 7211 + 58 212 509 7464

·         Citizen Tareck El Aissami, Ministro del Poder Popular para las Relaciones Interiores y Justicia, Av. Urdaneta, Animas Plaza España, Centro Financiero Latino, P-28, Caracas.

      Fax: + 58 212 505 3157 + 58 212 505 3159 + 58 212 506 1557   + 58 212 506 1064

         Tel.: + 58 212 505 3153 + 58 212 505 3156

·         Citizen Wilmer Flores Trosel, Comisario General, Director General del Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas, Avenida Urdaneta, de Pelota a Punceres, Edif. CICPC, Caracas. Tels.: + 58 212 443 2652

·         Citizen Carla Ferreira, Fiscalía Nº 126 con Competencia en Derechos Fundamentales, Edificio Sede del Ministerio Público, Esquina de Ánimas. Av. Urdaneta, Caracas, E-mail: fcaracas@fiscalia.gov.ve  Fax: + 58 212 4086974

·         Citizen Gabriela Ramírez Pérez, Defensora del Pueblo de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, Av. Urdaneta, Animas Plaza España, Centro Financiero Latino, P-28, Caracas.

      Fax: + 58 212 575 4467 E-mail: denuncias@defensoria.gob.ve Esta dirección electrónica esta protegida contra spam bots. Necesita activar JavaScript para visualizarla       dmetropolitana@defensoria.gob.ve Tels.: + 58 212 505 3153 + 58 212 505 3156

·         H.E. Germán Mundaraín Hernández, Permanent Mission of Venezuela to the United Nations in Geneva, 18-a, Chemin François-Lehmann, 1218, Geneva, Switzerland. FAX:+ 41 22 723 28 81;  E-mail:   mission.venezuela@ties.itu.int

 

Please also write to the diplomatic mission or embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in your respective country.

 

Geneva, 4 February 2011

 

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

 



[1] This is a summary of the case. For the complete case, please check the original version.

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Date: February 7, 2011
Activity: Rights of the Child, Urgent campaigns
Type: Urgent Interventions
Country: Venezuela
Subjects: Justice system, Rights of the child, Threats, intimidation and harassment, Torture and violence

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