The Special Action Forces (, FAES) is an elite command of the Venezuelan National Police created in April 2016.Maduro ordenó a la FANB crear este año Fuerzas de Acciones Especiales.
Publicado el 26 de abril de 2016. Consultado el 13 de febrero de 2019. By 2019, it had around 1,300 officers. The FAES includes the Unidad de Operaciones Tácticas Especiales (UOTE) a

police tactical unit A police tactical unit (PTU) is a specialized police unit trained and equipped to handle situations that are beyond the capabilities of ordinary law enforcement units because of the level of violence (or risk of violence) involved. The tasks of a ...

. The FAES have been accused of being a political instrument of Nicolás Maduro, as well as being a death squad and of repressing the opposition.

History

The complaints by local NGOs and international organizations against the People's Liberation Operation forced

Nicolás Maduro Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and former union leader serving as the 53rd president of Venezuela since 2013. Previously, he was the 24th Vice President of Venezuela, vice president from 2012 to 20 ...

's administration to abandon the security policy, but kept the same dynamic in a different security force, the Special Armed Forces (FAES). According to Luis Izquiel, specialist in citizen security, the FAES resulted the "same or worse" in human rights violations. The FAES have been accused of being a political instrument of Nicolás Maduro, as well as being a death squad and of repressing the opposition. FAES, de fuerza élite a “grupo de exterminio”.
Publicado el 4 de marzo de 2018. Consultado el 13 de febrero de 2019.Faes, el brazo más oscuro de la represión del régimen de Maduro.
Publicado el 3 de febrero de 2019. Consultado el 13 de febrero de 2019. Between May and November 2017, of the 403 that security forces participated in the Caracas Metropolitan Area, 124 (31%) were attributed to the FAES, which at the same time were responsible for 62% of the killings caused by the National Police. PROVEA, a Venezuelan human rights group, denounced the FAES of killing more than 100 people in low-income neighborhoods in the six months leading up to January 2019 during the

protests in Venezuela Various protests occurred against governments in Venezuela in the twentieth century. History Juan Vicente Gómez dictatorship After the surrender of the German Empire, the Caracas population celebrated in the streets the end of World War I on ...

. On 5 July 2019 the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,

Michelle Bachelet Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (; born 29 September 1951) is a Chilean politician who served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the presidency. She was re-elected in December ...

, released a report presenting evidence of the murder of at least 6,800 Venezuelans from January 2018 to May 2019 by various security forces including the FAES. The report included documentation of instances of torture, including

waterboarding Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the person to experience the sensation of drowning. In the most common method of waterboard ...

and electric shocks. The regime deemed it as "biased". Bachelet included among her report's recommendations to disband the FAES and open an independent investigation of their actions. Few days after the report was published, Nicolás Maduro appeared publicly with FAES officers, praising them. Although Maduro's administration alleged that the report was plagued with "falsehoods", it has worked along Bachelet's Office. On a September 2020 update of the human rights situation of Venezuela, Bachelet stressed FAES' actions again and informed that according to the Public Ministry, seventy FAES officers had been indicted in several states.

Equipment

* Beretta Px4 * Beretta M92 *

Glock 17 Glock (; stylized as GLOCK) is a brand of polymer- framed, short-recoil-operated, striker-fired, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H. The firearm entered Austrian military an ...

Heckler & Koch MP5 The Heckler & Koch MP5 (, ) is a submachine gun developed in the 1960s by German firearms manufacturer Heckler & Koch. It uses a similar modular design to the Heckler & Koch G3, and has over 100 variants and clones, including selective fire, Se ...

AK-103 The AK-103 is an assault rifle designed by Russian small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov. History The AK-103 was officially offered for export on March 13, 1993. Design details It is an AK-100 derivative of the AK-74M that is chambered ...

* AR-15 *

M4 Carbine The M4 carbine (officially Carbine, Caliber 5.56 mm, M4) is a 5.56×45mm NATO assault rifle developed in the United States during the 1980s. It is a shortened version of the M16A2 assault rifle. The M4 is extensively used by the US mi ...

In popular culture

The 2019 documentary '' Colateral'', directed by Venezuelan journalist Lucrecia Cisneros, explores the consequences of extrajudicial executions in Venezuela by security forces, including by the FAES.

History

Equipment

In popular culture

References

Further reading