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Direccion de los Servicios de Inteligencia y Prevencion


DISIP, the Direccion Nacional de los Servicios de Inteligencia y Prevencion ("National Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services"), is the premier intelligence agency in Venezuela. It was established in March 1969 by then-president Rafael Caldera, replacing the Direccion General de Policia. DISIP is an internal security force subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior. As of October 2009, the Minister of the Interior and Justice of the Venezuelan Government is Tarek El Aissami, appointed by President Hugo Chavez.

DISIP officers dress either in black uniforms or plain clothes and drive yellow and black cars.

DISIP has an extensive record of human rights violations, from its foundation as hard-line dictator's Perez Jimenez's police, who were in charge of torturing so-called "enemies of State", to its role as a base of operations against post-Revolution Cuba for the Central Intelligence Agency and Cuban exiles such as Luis Posada Carriles,"Posada Carriles and his self-exiled Cuban cohorts held top positions in the DISIP during the late 1960s and early 1970s, utilizing the Venezuela intelligence division as a platform to wage their war against the Cuban Revolution. Venezuela became home to the largest Cuban exile community outside of Miami, and the base of operations for numerous terrorist activities that resulted in the death and injury of hundreds of innocent civilians in Cuba and abroad." - Venezuelanalysis, 29 June 2005, Venezuela Rejects CIA, But Opens Doors to FBI & DEA to recent allegations of torture and murder of political opponents. In their 1997 and 1998 reports, Amnesty International details human rights violations by DISIP, including unlawful detention of Venezuelan human rights activists.

A murderous rampage 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 Chavez government. At first, Chavez 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 Chavez. Amnesty International has also expressed concern over excessive use of force by the DISIP, and the increasing polarization and political violence in Venezuela since Chavez was elected in December 1998.

On December 4th, 2009, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, during a swearing-in ceremony for the high command of the recently created Bolivarian National Police (Policia Nacional Bolivariana), announced that Disip will change its name, with immediate effect, to Bolivarian Intelligence Service .

See also

Law enforcement in Venezuela

Direccion de Inteligencia Militar

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