8 they take place after illegal searches by hooded or unidentified persons who then proceed to kill the victims. 44. In its recent report on Democracy and Human Rights in Venezuela, approved on December 30, 2009, the Inter-American Commission referred to information provided by the State relating to the context of extrajudicial executions in the following terms: Neither did the State answer the request for information on the annual figures for deaths occurring in confrontations with the police over the past five years, although it did report that figures from the Attorney General’s Office indicate that during 2008, a total of 509 killings occurred during confrontations or ajusticiamentos. (In Venezuela, arbitrary denials of the right to life through extrajudicial killings are generally known as “ajusticiamentos”). [...] The State acknowledges that a preponderance of the reported extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances involve the police, chiefly state and municipal police forces, and it explains that these phenomena are the result of the structural problems that the Venezuelan State, along with other sister countries in the Latin American region, have faced for years. According to the State, in spite of its resolve to continue improving mechanisms and actions to uphold the right to life and physical integrity, certain practices that violate or undermine human rights still remain common in 5 certain state agencies, including the police. 45. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions reported in several occasions on the complaints received regarding extrajudicial executions committed in Venezuela by the security forces, as well as the threats made against the victims' families in 6 order to avoid complaints. 46. For its part, in its final observations on Venezuela of April 26, 2001, the Committee on Human Rights stated its grave concern for "the numerous complaints of extrajudicial executions and the 7 State's failure to respond to them". b. Non governmental organizations 47. Since 1993, Human Rights Watch has also referred to the above recurrent practice in its Annual Reports. In its last report corresponding to 2009, it stated, In Venezuela [...] extrajudicial executions by the security forces continue to be a recurrent practice. In the last decade, thousands of extrajudicial executions have been recorded. In 2009, the Public Prosecutor presented a complaint indicating that up until 2008 investigations were undertaken in 6,422 cases of violations of human rights by the police, leading to the prosecution of 463 8 policemen. 48. In a similar sense, in a publication in 2000, Amnesty International stated that it still had serious concerns over the "recent extrajudicial executions" committed by the security forces of the State, and reported that 5 IACHR, Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Venezuela, Democracy and Human Rights, 2009, paragraphs 739 and 740. 6 United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions: E-CN.4-1994-7; E/CN.4/1998/68/Add.1; E/CN.4/1999/39/Add.1; E/CN.4/2001/9/Add.1; E/CN.4/2003/3/Add.1; E/CN.4/2004/7/Add.1. Reports to the General Assembly of the United Nations, see A/55/288, of August 11, 2000: http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N00/604/84/PDF/N0060484.pdf?OpenElement. 7 See: http://www.acnur.org/biblioteca/pdf/1373.pdf 8 See: http://www.hrw.org/es/world-report-2010/venezuela-0