9 in recent years, […], Amnesty International has received dozens of reports of people dying at the hands of the security forces in circumstances suggesting that they were victims of extrajudicial executions. The police heads the statistics of those responsible for possible extrajudicial executions, but responsibility was also attributed to the army in several cases. Such incidents have hardly ever been exhaustively investigated and only in a very few cases have those responsible been brought 9 to trial. 49. In its 2008 Annual Report it also reported that up until the end of 2007, none of the recommendations made by the National Commission for Police Reforms had been implemented. Among these were the adoption of measures to improve police responsibility, human rights training and the use 10 of force and the regulation and control of the weapons used by the security forces, etc. 2. National sources a. National authorities 50. This situation has also been recognized by state agencies such as the Ombudsman and the General Prosecutor of the Republic. 51. In its 2001 Annual Report, the Ombudsman indicated that Among the patterns where a person is deprived of his or her life in an arbitrary manner, the practice of extrajudicial executions, known as ajusticiamiento, was recurrent throughout the period of this Annual Report. This term refers to the conduct of agents authorized by law to use force and firearms that has the purpose and intent of causing death. The situation analyzed here presupposes tendencies permitting the inference of the permanent existence of illegal police practices, resulting in the establishment of a de facto death penalty, and which infringes at the same time the fundamental right to life, the values of justice, solidarity and respect towards the individual. We have identified three elements that favor impunity. The first is the acceptance of the discourse on police confrontations by the organs charged with law enforcement and the citizenry itself, leading to no relevant criminal investigations being undertaken. The second element that protects impunity is the discretionary use of much of the mass media in the states affected by this phenomenon, which present the facts as an effective tool to combat the high levels of insecurity. Lastly, another of the reasons favoring impunity is the general lack of awareness on the part of the 11 citizens of their rights and guarantees, as well as the means to vindicate them. 52. For its part, when presenting the 2005 Annual Report to the National Assembly, the General Prosecutor of the Republic indicated that between 2000 and 2005, the number of victims of killings perpetrated by the State security forces was 6,377, with a total of 6,100 policemen implicated. Of these cases, 3,346 were killings allegedly committed by the police of the states, 1,198 by agents of the Corps of Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigations (hereinafter “CSPCI”), 706 by the municipal police, 140 by members of the National Guard, and 72 by members of the Directorate of Intelligence and 12 Prevention Services (DISIP). 9 Amnesty International. Venezuela. PROTECTING HUMAN RIGHTS - THE TASK IS NOT YET OVER. Available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR53/008/2000/en/f766fc23-de0f-11dd-a3e1-93acb0aa12d8/amr530082000en.pdf 10 Amnesty International. Annual http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,COI,AMNESTY,ANNUALREPORT,VEN,,483e27bd3c,0.html. Report. 11 Ombudsman of Venezuela. Report: 'Ajusticiamientos' and Forced Disappearances. Yearbook 2001. Available at http://www.defensoria.gob.ve/lista.asp?sec=1404080002. 12 2006. Speech of the General Prosecutor of the Republic on occasion of the release of the Annual Report of 2005. April 25,