The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned on Friday the shocking accounts of extrajudicial killings by Venezuelan security forces, calling on the government to bring the perpetrators to justice. It cited the security forces’ suspected killing of hundreds of demonstrators, adding that alleged criminals enjoy immunity from prosecution, indicating that the rule of law is “virtually absent” in the country. It gave the example of killings of young men during crime-fighting operations conducted without arrest warrants in poor neighborhoods. The report also highlights the case early this year in which rebel police officer Oscar Perez and six in his group were shot to death as they tried to surrender. UN officials say they believe the group was executed on orders from top government officials in violation of their basic rights. Critics say President Nicolas Maduro has resorted to increasingly authoritarian tactics as the OPEC nation’s economy has spiraled deeper into recession and hyperinflation, fueling discontent and prompting hundreds of thousands to emigrate in the past year. About 125 people died in anti-government protests last year. Maduro says the opposition protests were aimed at overthrowing him and accuses the United States of directing an “economic war” against Venezuela. “The failure to hold security forces accountable for such serious human rights violations suggests that the rule of law is virtually absent in Venezuela,” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement. “The impunity must end.” The report says that between 2015 and 2017, some 357 officers were placed under investigation stemming from 505 killings during supposed neighborhood raids. But Venezuelas attorney general, who was critical of Maduro, was replaced last August, and no more information about the prosecutions has become public, the report said. It added that evidence appears to have vanished from case files. A key obstacle was that the Bureau for scientific, criminal and forensic investigations that is in charge of the inquiries is also “allegedly responsible for most of the killings,” it said. "The state appears neither able nor willing to prosecute serious human rights violations," Zeid said, suggesting the International Criminal Court play a deeper role. There was no immediate comment from the Venezuelan government on the report, which was released before dawn in Venezuela. Zeid, addressing the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, called on the 47-member forum to set up a commission of inquiry into alleged violations in Venezuela - one of its member states. The Venezuelan government has drawn international condemnation since last year when officials loyal to Maduro formed a constitutional assembly, robbing power from the democratically elected congress, which is controlled by the opposition. The unpopular Maduro has cast the release of dozens of opposition members as a peace gesture following his re-election to a new six-year term last month, which was condemned by most Western nations as an undemocratic farce. His government denies the detainees are political prisoners. Venezuela is suffering from an economic collapse that includes chronic shortages of food and medicine and annualized inflation around 25,000 percent.