2017: Venezuelan protests On 17 May 2017, Diosdado Cabello assured during his television program
Con el mazo dando that he would activate an operation called "Tun Tun" that night for people who imported implements for "terrorists", noting that the opposition "is going to get harder than a cat burglar" and describing
Voluntad Popular deputy
Freddy Guevara as a "drug addict". On 24 June, during a ceremony commemorating the
Battle of Carabobo and Army Day, President
Nicolás Maduro declared that all those detained in Operation Tun Tun were under military justice. Cabello also threatened the shipping companies in the country, stating that "they contribute with the transfer of supplies that are used by members of these violent groups to generate acts of vandalism and terrorism in Venezuela" and declaring that the situation "will be taken to the competent authorities to investigate these actions", saying that shipping companies
DHL, Liberty Express, Aduanera Las Dos L, Aduana Isacar and Economía Aduanera 2000 could be charged under the Anti-Terrorism Law. A report by
Human Rights Watch and
Foro Penal documented at least six instances in which Venezuelan security forces raided residential areas and apartments in Caracas and in four different states. In some of the raids, which tended to occur near barricades built by protesters, security forces entered homes without search warrants, stealing personal belongings and food, and beating and arresting residents. The deputy of the Legislative Council of the Bolívar state, Cesar Ramírez, witnessed the raid in the urbanizations of Villa Latina, Los Olivos and Los Mangos in
Puerto Ordaz, where officers of the National Guard, military counter-intelligence and the
Bolivarian Intelligence Service were present with sledgehammers, demolition equipment, and firearms, breaking glass and main access doors and raiding residences. Ramirez described the actions of the officers as "very far from what is a police operation" stating that "it looked like a criminal operation with people in National Guard uniforms, hooded and with firearms causing destruction and running over a civilian population inside their homes, violating human rights". Ramírez requested the Attorney General's Office order a criminal investigation against governor
Francisco Rangel Gómez, officials of the
General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence and the
Bolivarian National Guard for causing destruction to private property, raid of apartments without a court order and detaining a minor without an arrest warrant.
2017–2018: Supreme Court in exile On 24 June 2017, Diosdado Cabello threatened, again in his program
Con el mazo dando, the candidates to be appointed by the National Assembly as judges of the
Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela in exile, after the judges appointed in 2015 with vices and irregularities by the outgoing ruling party majority of the National Assembly, saying: "Let's see who will appoint you, who will defend you, to see if
Julio Borges will defend you when the operation tuntun comes for you, let's see if they will defend you."
2019: Present Future youth leadership program On July 11, 2019, Diosdado threatened to apply Operation Tun Tun against Reinaldo Diaz Ohep and others who supported Present Future, a program promoting development of youth leaders.
2020: COVID-19 pandemic In 2020, the
Academy of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences of Venezuela published a report on the
COVID-19 pandemic where it warned that the peak of the outbreak in the country could reach 4,000 cases per day in June. Cabello responded to the report by threatening the academy, saying "This is an invitation for security agencies to visit these people. It is an invitation to a tun tun". The academy rejected the threats.
2024: Venezuelan presidential election Following the
2024 Venezuelan presidential election and
protests, Maduro accused the opposition of promoting a coup. Operation Tun Tun (Operation Knock Knock) is the strategy Maduro mentioned;
BBC News stated that "rights groups say it consists of the authorities going door-to-door to detain those with links to the protests or the opposition". Rafael Uzcategui of Laboratorio de Paz "suggested the operation was intended to terrify Venezuelans into submission", adding that "what we are seeing is simply an effort to sew a climate of terror", according to
The Guardian. Venezuela's
counterintelligence agency, DGCIM used its social media accounts to warn that Operation Tun-Tun was just beginning, and that it was
"sin lloradera" (no weeping), implying that no amount of resistance would make a difference, and set up a telephone line to gather reports about protesters, who Maduro's officials refer to as
guarimberos, coup plotters, terrorists or
traitors. The Maduro administration reported at least 2,000 people had been arrested as of 7 August; Clara del Campo of
Amnesty International said that number included over 100 teens. Maduro ordered two prisons to be rehabilitated to contain the detained. A campaign worker for the opposition told
The Washington Post that "security forces and the Maduro-supporting bikers known as
colectivos appear to be targeting low-income areas that have previously been strongholds of government support". A complaint from a neighbor may start the process, in which arrests are being conducted outside of the law.
Arrests of politicians and journalists Freddy Superlano, a former candidate, was detained by masked men two days after the election. Shortly before, Cabello had announced that the arrest of ten opposition leaders was planned. A week later, attorney confirmed that Superlano and journalist (who also worked for the Popular Will party Representatives of Superlano's party said they were told by
chavista informants that Superlano would be tortured to "make him confess to the false plan set up by regime spokesmen such as
Tarek William Saab". The same day that Superlano was detained, Ricardo Estévez, an advisor with
Vente Venezuela for the González campaign, was taken from his residence by armed men from two unmarked cars, presumed to be from the
Bolivarian Intelligence Service. Vente Venezuela politician María Oropeza livestreamed as security forces broke into her residence without a
search warrant and arrested her two hours after she described the ongoing detentions as a "witch hunt". As of 9 August, her whereabouts were unknown.
Opposition targeted Opposition leaders said that citizens who witnessed the
vote tally sheets in the electoral process (poll watchers) were persecuted and detained. The CNE had their contact data; Maduro accused them of being guerillas, according to
NTN 24. Many poll watchers "fled their homes in fear".
Cuban participation According to the
Miami Herald, "activists have denounced that a number of the agents taking part in repressing opposition figures and protesters have Cuban accents", as "at least four passenger flights" have arrived from Cuba, according to local media. José Colina, a former lieutenant in the Venezuelan National Guard, told the
Miami Herald that his military sources still in Venezuela say that some of the Operation Tun Tun searches and arrests are conducted by Cubans. == Reception ==