Please find attached some documents that add to the information provided in Responses to Information Requests VEN13930 of 21 May 1993 and VEN2132 of 18 September 1989. Additional references to the DISIP can be found in Responses VEN17065.E of 13 April 1994 and VEN2981 of 25 January 1990.

The attached documents provide different translations of DISIP's full name and describe it as an intelligence service or a political police under the command of the Ministry of the Interior.

A summary provided by one of Venezuela's main human rights organizations states that the organization and number of agents of DISIP have not varied much over the years, although its chiefs change according to the political party that controls the government (PROVEA 22 Apr. 1993). The source also states that DISIP is a state security body with internal security control functions (funciones de control de seguridad interna in the original Spanish text) dependent on the Ministry of the Interior; in other words, according to PROVEA, a "political police" (ibid.). PROVEA adds that DISIP was responsible for most of the human rights violations (arbitrary detention, raids and tortures) that took place in 1992 following the 4 February and 27 November attempted coups, when constitutional guarantees were suspended. The text sent to the DIRB by PROVEA cannot be attached to this Response, as it is not written in one of Canada's official languages, but it can be provided upon request, as it is a public document received by the DIRB.

One of the attached reports describes DISIP's role in preventing the regular circulation of at least one newspaper from 7 to 10 February 1992 (Latinamerica Press 20 Feb. 1992, 1). Another report states that the statistics of the attorney general's Human Rights Office on homicides allegedly committed by police forces place DISIP as "the second worst offender" among the security forces, with fifteen cases under investigation in late 1993 (Latinamerica Press 28 Oct. 1993, 4). Human Rights Watch names DISIP as one of the Venezuelan police forces which employed in 1993 "such abusive methods as force disproportionate to the circumstances, extrajudicial executions and physical abuse and torture" (Dec. 1993, 133). The same source states that DISIP has been one of the three security forces "principally responsible for interdicting drugs" (ibid., 135).

DISIP and Judicial Technical Police heads conducted an investigation into a series of letter bombs sent to judges of the supreme court in 1993 and identified an active DISIP chief, Maximiliano José Monsalve Planchart, as the person directly responsible for the attacks (Andean Newsletters Aug. 1993, 7). After Monsalve Planchart's indictment, an official report linked him to important human rights violations that took place over the past decade (the attached excerpt from the Andean Newsletter describes some of these cases). Monsalve Planchart worked in the DISIP Investigation Brigade and was under the command of a former DISIP commander, Henry López Sisco, who has also been linked to the above-mentioned letter bombs and placed under arrest (ibid., 8). The source adds that López Sisco's arrest was a surprise for the Venezuelan public, as he "has been a major power symbol within police forces for more than two decades" (ibid.).

This response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Andean Newsletter [Lima]. August 1993. "Terrorism and Human Rights Violations."

Human Rights Watch World Report 1994. December 1993. New York: Human Rights Watch.

Latinamerica Press [Lima]. 28 October 1993. Inés Scudellari. "Venezuelans Live with Police Impunity."

_____. 20 February 1992. "Venezuela under the Microscope after Coup Attempt."

Programa Venezolano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos (PROVEA), Caracas. 22 April 1993. Fax received by DIRB.

Andean Newsletter [Lima]. August 1993. "Terrorism and Human Rights Violations," pp. 7-8.

_____. February 1993. "Amnesty International Visit Makes Government Uncomfortable," pp. 7-8.

_____. December 1992. "The Coup and Its Consequences," p. 7.

Human Rights Watch World Report 1994. December 1993. New York: Human Rights Watch.

Latinamerica Press [Lima]. 28 October 1993. Inés Scudellari. "Venezuelans Live with Police Impunity."

_____. 20 February 1992. "Venezuela under the Microscope after Coup Attempt."