Venezuela: up to 27 years in prison for police officers who blinded young Rufo Chacón during protest

Two policemen who blinded a student after shooting him in a protest against the lack of gas in Venezuela, were sentenced to 21 and 27 years in prison, said the attorney general, Tarek William Saab, on Monday.

Javier Useche and Henry Ramírez, “who fired their shotguns and took their eyes off the teenager Rufo Chacon” They were sentenced to 27 years, 9 months and 21 years, 5 months, respectively. “For the crimes of qualified homicide in degree of frustration”Saab reported on Twitter.

Former officials They were sentenced for shooting with their regulation weapons (shotguns) at Chacón, who was 16 years old at the time., during a protest against gas supply failures in San Cristobal, capital of the state Táchira (west), in July 2019.

They were also charged with the crimes of “cruel treatment and improper use of organic weapons,” added the prosecutor, considering the verdict as a guarantee of “full justice in the defense of human rights.”

The government of the president Nicolas Maduro has been singled out before international bodies for human rights violations, several of these framed in anti-government protests that left at least 125 dead between April and July 2017.

The International Criminal Court (ICC), which began preliminary examinations against Venezuela in 2018 for “alleged crimes against humanity”, has denounced “inaction” by authorities in investigations of abuses committed by security forces, according to a report declassified last August, rejected by Saab and by the Maduro government.

In the midst of the accusations, the Venezuelan prosecutor’s office has invited the ICC to “verify ‘in situ’ the efforts made by all Venezuelan institutions” in the area of ​​human rights.

In its management reports, Saab has indicated that more than 150 police and military officials have been convicted of human rights violations since 2017.