Origin With the overthrow of dictator
Marcos Pérez Jiménez in January 1958, Venezuela was plunged into an acute institutional crisis in the police and security area, following the dismantling of the
Seguridad Nacional, also called "political police"; the absence of a similar, moderately effective organization gives rise to impromptu Technical Services Criminology, an organization in the popular police jargon was known as Criminology, was a time of much confusion as it was beginning to take shape guerrilla activity and for that reason the political activism of opposition was severely punished. On April 29, 1959, according to Executive Order No. 51, taking into account the need to define the roles and responsibilities of the various police forces, the general direction of police "DIGEPOL", DISIP's predecessor organization, which creates would have the task "to exercise and coordinate the entire national territory policing aimed at the preservation of order and public tranquility", according to its powers under the Ministry of Interior, in Article No. 18 of the Constitution of Ministries, without prejudice to the legal powers of the Judicial Technical Police and state police. With this decision, the powers of the criminal police, faculty and power of intelligence and state security were separated.
1960s Creation of DISIP When
Rafael Caldera assumed his first presidency in the Venezuela, he ordered the dissolution of the DIGEPOL and signed Decree No. 15, dated March 19, 1969 giving birth to the "Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services" whose initials are DISIP. Its objective was to demonstrate the initial combat subversion and drug trafficking. Its first commanders took the initiative to establish appropriate training courses and their members, mostly from former members of DIGEPOL. The first head of DISIP was
Cuban dissident Luis Posada Carriles. During his leadership, Posada was in countering various Cuban-supported guerrilla movements in Venezuela. Posada was dismissed from the service in 1974 due to ideological differences with the government of
Carlos Andrés Pérez. In 1976, the leader of
Revolutionary Left Movement and founder of the
Socialist League,
Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, was detained by DISIP agents, who tortured him to death. Minister of Interior
Octavio Lepage had ordered that Rodríguez not be harmed, and Lepage replaced the Director of DISIP Aristides Lander with General Raus Gimenez Gainza as a result of the death.
1980s In this context, the DISIP holding several clashes such as the
Cantaura massacre, occurred between 4 and 8 October 1982 where some tens of DISIP agents with more than 400 soldiers from the Armed Forces killed 23 Front guerrilla fighters "Americo Silva", belonging to rural guerrilla group
Red Flag. During the
Caracazo, DISIP officers were reported to have beat detained protesters with baseball bats and pipes.
1990s In the 1990s, the DISIP forward intelligence operations against the rebel soldiers led by
Hugo Chávez and
Francisco Arias Cárdenas giving
two attempted coup against President Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1992, the national government of the time authorized actions to not investigate suspects of participants in the coup. In the particular case of November 27, 1992, officers of the Brigade of Interventions, Vehicular Patrol, the General Intelligence and Investigation Division faced by National Guard military rebels, the latter being defeated. DISIP facilities in
El Helicoide in Caracas were bombed by the rebel air force.
Amnesty International expressed concern over excessive use of force by the DISIP, and the increasing polarization and
political violence in Venezuela since Chávez was elected in December 1998. During the president Hugo Chávez, a crackdown against suspected looters in the state of
Vargas following the
1999 mudslides became, according to
Human Rights Watch, "the first major human rights test of the
Chávez government. At first, Chávez dismissed the reports as 'suspicious' and 'superficial,' but the evidence soon obliged the president and other top government officials to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation." Human Rights Watch expressed their deep concern over DISIP (and National Guard) abuse in Venezuela in a 2004 personal letter to President Hugo Chávez.
2000s The Chávez administration distanced its intelligence services from the United States into the 2000s, instead partnering with
Cuba,
Lebanon and
Libya for its DISIP operations, providing advisory offices for each nation in
El Helicoide. DISIP was also used to fund
Bolivarian Circles to provide intelligence from poor areas. ==References==