Extrajudicial killings in Venezuela shockingly high

Michelle Bachelet. Pic /AFP

Geneva: Nearly 7,000 people have been killed during security operations in Venezuela in the past year and a half, the UN said on Thursday, warning that many of the killings likely constituted "executions".

In a fresh report, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said the Venezuelan government had registered at least 6,856 killed in alleged confrontations with state forces since the beginning of 2018. "The incidence of alleged extrajudicial killings by security forces... has been shockingly high," Bachelet's office said in a statement. Last year, the government registered 5,287 killings, purportedly for "resistance to authority" during such operations, between January 1 and May 19 this year, another 1,569 similar killings were registered, according to the report.

The numbers were provided by the Venezuelan government to the UN rights office in response to a request made following a visit to the country by a technical team in March, spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told AFP.

The UN rights chief, who herself visited Venezuela last month, warned in her report that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that many of these killings constitute extra-judicial executions committed by the security forces."

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