La Vega raid

On 8 January 2021, security forces from the Venezuelan National Police (PNB), the Special Action Forces (FAES), and the Venezuelan National Guard carried out a raid in La Vega Parish, Caracas, Venezuela. The stated objective of the operation was to take control of the parish, which was reportedly controlled by a local criminal organization. Police entered using motorcycles, armored vehicles, and at least one light tank. According to investigative journalists and human rights organizations, at least 23 people died during the operation.

The raid followed prior reporting on police information indicating that a mafia operating in Cota 905 in Caracas and another criminal organization in El Valle Parish were engaged in a conflict with police. Police sources stated that all those killed had criminal backgrounds or were listed in police registries. However, relatives of victims stated that many people were arrested during home raids and later executed. Witnesses at Caracas's Bello Monte morgue said that several victims identified there had been alive at the time of their arrest. No police deaths were reported from the confrontations.

As of 11 January 2021, the Nicolás Maduro administration had not issued any statement about the events or announced an official death toll. Attorney General Tarek William Saab and the Interior Affairs Minister did not respond to comment requests from BBC Mundo, and neither Venezuela's information ministry nor the chief prosecutor's office responded to requests for comment from Reuters.

The NGO Monitor de Víctimas unofficially registered 24 deaths and identified 10 victims, three of whom were minors. A report by Runrunes indicated that families would not be able to hold funerals for victims, who would be taken directly to the cemetery, and that several burials would be paid for by the state. Former prosecutor and Public Ministry director Zair Mundaray stated that the bodies showed a "ballistic pattern that indicates extrajudicial killings."

The human rights organization PROVEA said at least 23 people died during the operation and described the events as a "massacre," calling on Ombudsman Alfredo Ruiz to explain the events and file a complaint. PROVEA's investigation coordinator, Marino Alvarado, said relatives of victims began reporting that people had been detained and later executed. Alvarado also noted that the operation resulted in no injuries among security officers or victims, called it the bloodiest operation in the country since the "People's Liberation Operations" (OLP) began in 2015, and suggested the raid could represent a government attempt to control the area amid social unrest, comparing it to prior OLP operations in Cota 905 (17 deaths) and Aragua state in 2016 (16 deaths).

This case is contextualized against a broader pattern documented by the United Nations, which in June 2019 and again in September 2020 raised concerns about extrajudicial killings attributed to FAES, and in 2020 a UN fact-finding mission called for FAES to be disbanded due to its role in such killings and other alleged human rights violations.