No, I'm not aware of that. Brazil had a horrible reputation of police carrying out extrajudicial assassinations, including of youth who were suspected of criminal acts, particularly in the poor areas.
In Venezuela the crime is also concentrated in the poor areas. Part of the issue has been that the police have not entered those areas and are not providing protection in those areas; it's not so much that they're involved in the violence itself. As is the case with many countries, I have heard stories—I don't have particular evidence or numbers—that there is also some involvement of the different security forces—police, national guard, the military—in different parts of the country in crime, in gangs, and in drugs. That certainly is not unique to Venezuela and Latin America; we see this in any of the countries where drug production is an issue. The issue in Venezuela, of course, is not production of drugs, but transit.
Yes, I do hear stories that there is concern about participation of some officers in that sort of thing, but in terms of the actual abuse by police or military, the police are the ones who are dealing with the people. The military are not dealing with common crime in the streets.
An excellent NGO in Venezuela called Provea keeps records of this. Their 2011 report just came out, and they had about 200 to 300 people reporting some level of rough treatment by police. In terms of reporting something defined as “torture” or “harm to the physical integrity of the person”, the numbers were quite low, around 20 individual reports. We are talking about relatively small numbers, but it possibly exists, so I think there's certainly a need for police reform. I think that's evident.
They're trying to carry it out; whether they'll be successful or not is a completely different question.