(DISIP) and the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DIM). 51 Similarly, in her report of January 6, 1997, the UN Special Rapporteur, Asma Jahangir indicated that she had received several allegations of human rights violations in Venezuela involving the extrajudicial killings of minors by members of police forces. 52 In addition, in its report of April 26, 2001, the Human Rights Committee, expressed its deep concern at the reports of torture and excessive use of force by the police and other security forces; the State party’s apparent delay in responding to such occurrences, and the absence of independent mechanisms to investigate the reports in question. 53 50. In this regard, in its Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Venezuela of October 24, 2003, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights noted the proliferation in different states of death squads [grupos de exterminio] with ties to police organizations, whose modus operandi consisted in executions in feigned confrontations, or when the victim was arrested and taken to the police detention center, and several days later, over the course of which his whereabouts were unknown, he appeared dead without any plausible explanation. 54 51. The 2007 report prepared by the Venezuelan National Commission for Police Reform (CONAREPOL) entitled “Characteristics of the Venezuelan Police Forces,” indicated: “Currently, despite some relevant changes, our police forces retain a strong military component, especially in relation to their structure, tactics and sub-culture. These elements are revealed most clearly in the state police forces. Regarding their relations with the population, the militarized police model involves a warlike rationale, according to which the individual is defined as the enemy, and the manner and strategy of the relationship is regulated by this definition. This results in a high probability of abuse, increased willingness to use physical force, aggressive and inefficient operational patterns to combat crime, distrust of the population, few reports of crime (people only go to the police to denounce serious crimes), limited cooperation between the police and the population, and also higher levels of confrontation and rejection of police presence. […] These types of groups, of a welldefined para-military nature, are entirely ineffective for normal police work; rather, to the contrary, owing to the para-military culture encouraged among their members, the intense corporatism that promotes complicity and concealment, their autonomization from the rest of the police structure, and their immense fire power and training in the use of physical force, is associated with serious cases of abuse, crime and human rights violations.” 55 51 Cf. United Nations (UN), Commission on Human Rights. Report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Bacre Waly Ndiaye, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/71, of 7 December 1993. E/CN.4/1994/7, para. 638. Available at: http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G93/858/09/PDF/ G9385809.pdf?OpenElement. 52 Cf. United Nations, Economic and Social Council. Report of the Special Rapporteur, Ms. Asma Jahangir, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1998/68, Addendum, Country situations, of 6 January 1999. E/CN.4/1999/39/Add.1. Available at: http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G99/100/ 26/PDF/G9910026.pdf? OpenElement para. 258. 53 Cf. United Nations, Human Rights Committee. Concluding observations by the Human Rights Committee: Venezuela, 26 April 2001. CCPR/CO/71/VEN, para. 8. Available at http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CCPR/CO/71/VEN&Lang=Sp 54 Cf. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Venezuela of October 24, 2003. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.118. Available at: http://www.cidh.org/countryrep/Venezuela2003eng/ chapter3.htm#B., para. 298, and http://www.cidh.org/countryrep/Venezuela2003 eng/chapter4.htm#C, para. 333. 55 According to a study prepared by the Committee of the Families of Victims (COFAVIC) on the executions reported from 2000 to 2002 (the so-called “extermination groups”), in most of the cases those responsible or suspected of being responsible belonged to a police command group. Cf. National Commission for Police Reform (CONAREPOL). Características de la Policía Venezolana (annexes to the motions and arguments brief folios 6201, 6212, 6214). 16