U.N.-backed report decries worsening Venezuelan repression
GENEVA — Independent U.N. human rights experts said in a new report Tuesday that their findings show Venezuela’s government has intensified the use of the “harshest and most violent” tools of repression after the disputed July presidential election.
The official results of the vote have been widely criticized as undemocratic, opaque and intended to keep President Nicolás Maduro in power.
In its report, the factfinding mission on Venezuela, commissioned by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council, denounced rights violations including arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual and genderbased violence by the country’s security forces that, “taken as a whole, constitute the crime against humanity of persecution on political grounds.”
“During the period covered by this report, and especially after the presidential election of July 28, 2024, the state reactivated and intensified the harshest and most violent mechanisms of its repressive apparatus,” the experts said. The report covered a one-year period through Aug. 31.
The Venezuelan diplomatic mission in Geneva said it does not recognize the mandate of the fact-finding mission and declined to comment on the report to the Associated Press, though it was likely to address the report when it comes up for presentation to the council this week.
The findings echo concerns from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Human
Rights Watch and others about Venezuela and its democracy, including repression before and after the highly anticipated vote and the subsequent flight into exile of Venezuela’s opposition candidate in the election, Edmundo González Urrutia.
Marta Valiñas, who heads the experts team, said Venezuelan authorities acknowledged they arrested more than 2,200 people between July 29 and Aug. 6.
“Of these, we have confirmed the arrest of at least 158 children — some with disabilities,” Valiñas told reporters at a news conference Tuesday in Geneva, noting that some had been accused of serious crimes, such as terrorism. “This phenomenon is something new and extremely worrying. We are facing a systematic, coordinated and deliberate repression by the Venezuelan government, which responds to a conscious plan to silence any form of dissent.”
Venezuela’s National
Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, said the incumbent won the election with 52% of the vote.
But opposition supporters collected tally sheets from 80% of the nation’s electronic voting machines, and said they indicated González had won the election — with twice as many votes as Maduro.
Global condemnation over the lack of transparency prompted Maduro to ask Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice, whose members are aligned with the ruling party, to audit the results. The high court reaffirmed his victory.
The independent experts, who do not represent the U.N., have been reporting on rights violations — including alleged crimes against humanity — in Maduro’s Venezuela for years. This report, the fifth of its kind, decried the government’s efforts to crush peaceful opposition to its rule.