Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download
ePaper created 2015-11-10, 17:27:36 | version 1.33.00
REDACTED Page 38 of 190 forces, acting together with pro government armed paramilitaries, were reported to have triggered the violence by indiscriminately attacking entire demonstrations, and in some cases bystanders.119 In addition, even though the acts of violence were isolated to small groups of protestors, many sources confirm that the protestors were unarmed across the country and that they responded in the worse cases by throwing rocks and bottles at the national security forces, which used indiscriminate force including live ammunition in retaliation. Furthermore, even the presence of individuals who are taking part in hostilities within a crowd does not affect the status of the civilians nor justify the indiscriminate targeting of civilians on the basis of military necessity or other purposes.120 The indiscriminate nature of the attacks can be gathered not only from video footages of the incidents but also from the number of casualties, the profile of the victims and their testimonies as to what they were doing when they were attacked. A few instances that are illustrative of this fact include Marvinia Jiménez who was detained in Valencia on 24 February by National Guards officers and beaten with a helmet while she lay on the ground, restrained, just because she filming the protest and Moisés Guanchez, who was beaten and wounded by rubber bullets when detained by the GNB, as he left his workplace at the La Cascada Shopping Centre121 on the 3 March 2014. Similarly in Merida, on the same day, Giselle Rubilar Figueroa a civilian was shot dead when she was removing debris from a barricade near her home in Mérida. The next day in San Cristóbal, student Daniel Tinoco died after being shot in the chest by pro-government armed groups on motorbikes. Another two demonstrators who were with Tinoco were shot and wounded. Moreover, in Valencia, Isabelica sector, on 12 March 2014, certain pro government armed paramilitaries members on motorbikes fired against demonstrators and killed Jesús Enrique Acosta, who was shot in the head, and Guillermo Alfonso Sánchez Velásquez. They also injured five other persons.122 On 6 March 2014, in Caracas, GNB officer Acner Isaac Lopez and motorbike taxi driver José Gregorio Amaris were killed by pro government armed paramilitaries 119 HRW (2014). Punished for Protesting: Rights Violations in Venezuela’s Streets, Detention Centers, and Justice System; OVCS (2014). Conflictividad social en Venezuela en 2014 120 ICC. Prosecutor v Fofana and Kondewa. Appeal judgment. 28 May, 2008. para. 247 121 UZCATEGUI, R. (2014) La orfandad de llamarse Moisés Guánchez. Worldpress. [Online] 1 December. Available from: https://rafaeluzcategui.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/la-orfandad-de- llamarse-moises-guanchez/ [Accessed 23 October, 2015] 122 ROMERO, T. (2014) Sepultaron a Jesús Enrique Acosta y Guillermo Sánchez en Valencia. El Nacional. [Online] 14 March. Available from: http://www.el-nacional.com/regiones/Sepultaron- Enrique-Guillermo-Sanchez-Valencia_0_372562996.html [Accessed 23 October, 2015]; REPORTE CONFIDENTIAL. (2014) Estudiante, Adulto y niña (6) asesinados en La Isabelica en manifestaciones. Reporte Confidential. [Online] 12 March. Available from: http://reporteconfidencial.info/noticia/3214648/cuatro-personas-heridas-de-bala-en-la-isabelica-de- valencia-fotos/ [Accessed 23 October, 2015]