Minister of Interior and Police Faride Raful and the director general of the National Police, Major General Ramón Antonio Guzmán Peralta were not available this Monday, 6 October 2025 for their customary post-Security Joint Task Force meeting press conference.
The unusual no-show comes amid explosive revelations in the “La Barranquita case,” where five individuals were killed during a police operation. The Attorney General Office Public Ministry’s request for coercive measures against eleven police agents directly contradicted the initial official police version of events.
The prosecution investigative file reveals that none of the five victims fired a weapon, a finding that shatters the police’s original claim that the men “faced agents with gunfire.”
According to the Public Ministry, autopsy results, ballistic analyses, and gunshot residue tests all confirm that the victims did not discharge firearms. Furthermore, the projectiles recovered from the bodies match those from weapons issued to the accused agents themselves. Toxicology reports also determined that no controlled substances were detected in the deceased. The Public Ministry has formally labeled the incident an “extrajudicial execution,” asserting that evidence proves the operation was a planned action to murder the victims and then eliminate the evidence.
Facing a barrage of questions from journalists, it was Police spokesman Colonel Diego Pesqueira who offered the institution’s limited response.
Pesqueira reiterated that the Police had initially reported the event as “an ongoing development” and that some of the deceased had prior criminal records. He repeatedly deflected questions regarding the stark contradictions between the police’s initial narrative and the Prosecutor’s evidence.
“This case was sent to the Public Ministry and is now judicialized. We, as the National Police, are respectful of judicial processes and are complying with all requirements,” Pesqueira declared, carefully sidestepping the core issue.
When pressed on allegations of a lack of accountability in other past police-involved deaths, the spokesman insisted that the investigation rests entirely with the Public Ministry. “Every case involving agents, as established by procedural rules, falls into the hands of the Public Ministry. Any questions regarding that particular matter, they can answer in the corresponding jurisdiction,” he concluded.
The eleven accused agents come from two key units: the Department of Organized Crime and Complex Cases and the Central Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DICRIM).
The victims were identified as:
• Elvis Antonio Martínez Rodríguez (26)
• Julio Alberto Gómez (28)
• Carlos Enrique Guzmán Navarro (40)
• Edward Bernardo Peña Rodríguez (35)
• José Vladimir Valerio Estévez (25)
The case now moves through the courts, casting a major spotlight on institutional transparency and the ongoing reform efforts within the National Police.
7 October 2025