Venezuela: Unprecedented repression plunges nation into serious human rights crisis, says independent mission

The Venezuelan government has dramatically stepped up its efforts to crush all peaceful opposition to its rule, plunging the nation into one of the most serious human rights crises in recent history, the UN warned on Tuesday. Mission Independent International Fact-Finding Commission on Venezuela* in its latest report.

Researchers commissioned by the Human Rights Council The UN said that the documented violations and crimes, including the crime against humanity of politically motivated persecution, are not isolated or random acts, but part of a a continuing and coordinated plan to silence, discourage and repress opposition to the Government of President Nicolás Maduro.

“While this is a continuation of previous patterns that the mission has already characterized as crimes against humanity, The recent repression, due to its intensity and systematic nature, represents a very serious attack on the fundamental rights of the Venezuelan people.committed despite multiple calls inside and outside the country to respect human rights,” said the president of the Mission, Marta Valiñas.

The report examines the human rights situation in the country between September 2023 and August 2024.

New milestone in the deterioration of the rule of law

The Mission indicated that in the run-up to the presidential elections, from December 2023 to March 2024, at least 48 people were arrested on the grounds of what the Government described as conspiracies against them, and arrest warrants were issued for others.

These include: military personnel, as well as human rights defenders, journalists and members of the political opposition.

In July alone, the agency documented more than 120 people arrested in the context of opposition campaign events.

Following the July 28 elections, in which the National Electoral Council of Venezuela declared Nicolas Maduro the winner and whose announcement sparked protests across the country, “a new milestone in the deterioration of the rule of law” has been reached, the Mission said.

In this regard, the group of experts noted that the authorities “have abandoned any semblance of independence” and, in practice, “Many judicial guarantees have lost their effectiveness, leaving citizens defenseless against the arbitrary exercise of power.”.

Fatalities and arrests

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Valiñas insisted that their latest findings were “overwhelming: not only have there been no improvements, but violations have intensified, reaching unprecedented levels of violence,” adding that they have documented 25 fatalities following the elections.

Most of them were “young people under 30 years old from poor neighborhoods. There are two children among them,” he said. One of the deceased was a member of the Bolivarian National Guard, Valiñas said, adding that 24 “died from gunshot wounds [y] the other was beaten to death”.

According to the authorities’ own figures, more than 2,000 people were arrested in the first week of protests.

These individuals, including 130 boys and 28 girls, some with disabilities, were charged with terrorism and inciting hatred..

“We documented more than 40 cases in which security forces entered private homes without a court order, limiting themselves to using social media videos as the only evidence to arrest people they thought had participated in protests or had expressed criticism on social media“, explained Francisco Cox Vial, a member of the Mission.

“Of those detained during this period, many were subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as sexual violence, which was perpetrated against women and girls, but also against men, with reports of electric shocks, beatings with blunt objects, suffocation with plastic bags, immersion in cold water and forced sleep deprivation“said Patricia Tappatá Valdez, a member of the investigation mission.

“We have been able to verify that at least 143 of these arrests affected members of seven opposition parties, including 66 leaders of political movements,” Tappatá added.

Justice system, subordinate to the executive

The Mission said the arrests were followed by “serious violations of due process,” reaching “unprecedented” levels in the country.

Furthermore, the panel of experts reaffirmed its conclusion that the justice system, led by the Supreme Court, “is clearly subordinated to the interests of the executive branch and serves as a key instrument in their plan to suppress all forms of political and social opposition”.

“The victims and a large part of the population are exposed to the arbitrary exercise of power, where arbitrary detention is systematically used, with serious violations of due process,” said Francisco Cox, adding that they had already warned that the Government “could activate its repressive apparatus at will.”

The Mission noted that, in anticipation of the wave of repression prior to the elections, Maduro and other senior officials warned of the possibility of “a bloodbath” if they did not achieve victory.

“The severity of the repression, the effort to demonstrate results through imprisonment and the use of mistreatment and torture They have created a climate of widespread fear among the population, further reducing civic space.“the organization concluded.

* In September 2019, the United Nations Human Rights Council established the Mission independent international body for determining the facts regarding the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela through the resolution 42/25 for one year to assess alleged human rights violations committed since 2014. The Human Rights Council, through resolutions 45/20 and 51/29extended the mandate of the international Mission for two more years, until September 2024.