 A report by the human rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch reported in September 2019 that the poor communities in Venezuela no longer in support of Nicolás Maduro's government have witnessed arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial executions at the hands of Venezuelan police unit.The Venezuelan government has repeatedly declared that the victims were armed criminals who had died during “confrontations”, but several witnesses or families of victims have challenged these claims and in many cases victims were last seen alive in police custody.Although Venezuelan authorities told the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) that five FAES agents were convicted on charges including attempted murder for crimes committed in 2018, and that 388 agents were under investigation for crimes committed between 2017 and 2019, the OHCHR also reported that "[i]nstitutions responsible for the protection of human rights, such as the Attorney General’s Office, the courts and the Ombudsperson, usually do not conduct prompt, effective, thorough, independent, impartial and transparent investigations into human rights violations and other crimes committed by State actors, bring perpetrators to justice, and protect victims and witnesses."