Killing of Paúl Moreno

Paúl René Moreno Camacho (c. 1992–18 May 2017) was a Venezuelan student and Green Cross [es] volunteer killed during the 2017 Venezuelan protests.

Paúl Moreno was a fifth-year medical student at the University of Zulia and was a volunteer paramedic for the Green Cross [es]. On 18 May 2017, Paúl was nearby the Fuerzas Armadas Avenue in Maracaibo, when the driver of a vehicle rammed over a barricade, running over him and escaping from the scene. Moreno was transferred to the Adolfo Pons Hospital, where he died at the age of 24.^[1]

The killing of Paúl Moreno was documented in a report by a panel of independent experts from the Organization of American States, considering that it could constitute a crime against humanity committed in Venezuela along with other killings during the protests.^[1]

On 17 November 2017, Omar Barrios, held responsible for Paúl's death, was sentenced to 19 months of house arrest, after which he would have a presentation regime every 15 days. The sentence signed by the judge in charge of the case, Yesiré Rincón, incorrectly established that Moreno died in 2009 and not in 2017,^[2] and judge Rincón argued that the qualification of intentional homicide could not be applied because the criterion was approved in 2011. The irregularity of the sentence was denounced in a statement by Carlos Moreno, Paúl's brother.^[3]