A United Nations fact-finding mission Tuesday warned that repression in Venezuela has worsened following flawed presidential elections on July 28, with the government of Nicolas Maduro quashing all dissent to retain power “at any price.”
“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,” Marta Valinas, chair of the fact-finding mission, told journalists at a briefing in Geneva.
“As part of this plan, the government has instrumentalized the entire state apparatus, including especially the justice system, with a view to silencing any type of difference of opinion that opposes its scheme and to staying in power at any price,” she said.
The three-member panel said the 20-page report, which covers the period between September 1, 2023, and August 31, 2024, “set a new milestone in the deterioration of the rule of law.”
“The figures we have presented reveal the extent of violations committed,” said Francisco Cox Vial, member of the fact-finding mission.
“We cannot ignore that these violations represent a clear and deliberate line of conduct by the authorities of politically motivated persecution. We have come to the conclusion that many of these violations constitute crimes against humanity,” he said, adding that previous reports have documented how the government has “used systematic repression to remain in power.”
“Today, in this report, we confirm that this repression has reached an unprecedented level,” he said. “We have previously warned that the government could activate the repressive apparatus at will, and indeed, that is what we are observing. Repression and human rights violations are widespread and systematic, and we must act urgently to protect victims and ensure that those responsible are held into account.”
The report finds that violations and levels of violence have intensified in the post-election period. It has documented 25 confirmed deaths since July 29, most of them young people under age 30, including two children, and one member of the Bolivarian National Guard.
“Of these 25 victims, we have confirmed that 24 died from gunshot wounds. The other was beaten to death,” Valinas said, noting that the panel does not have sufficient evidence to attribute responsibility for the deaths.
“However, we can confirm the presence of security forces such as the Bolivarian National Guard and the Bolivarian National Police, sometimes accompanied by groups of armed civilians who fired on demonstrators during the protests,” she said, adding that the Venezuelan authorities admitted to having arrested more than 2,200 people between July 29 and August 6.
“Of these we have confirmed the arrest of at least 158 children, some with disabilities and accused of serious crimes, such as terrorism and incitement to hatred,” she said. “This phenomenon is something new and extremely worrying.”
The report describes detention in prisons with abysmal conditions, including the detention “of elderly persons with serious health problems,” for whom their lawyers requested humanitarian measures “that were not granted.”
The fact-finding mission says it has received many allegations of detainees being subjected to torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, as well as sexual violence, including electric shocks, beatings with blunt objects, suffocation with plastic bags, immersion in cold water and sleep deprivation, among others.
“The anguish and fears of families in this situation is indescribable,” said mission expert Patricia Tappata Valdez.
She also expressed concern about “the increasing intense closure of civic space,” which has severely limited freedom of expression. Valdez singled out Venezuela’s so-called anti-NGO law, which was passed during post-election protests, for reproof, explaining that it places “arbitrary limitations on the autonomous functioning of civil society organization, especially human rights defenders.”
“We are deeply concerned about the safety of all human rights defenders and that of their families. Their voices are essential to ensure that violations continue to be documented and that victims are not forgotten,” she said.
Maduro has been in power since 2013. He declared himself a winner for another six-year term in the latest presidential election, despite convincing evidence that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won by a large margin.
The U.N. investigators recognize that ending Maduro’s dictatorial rule will not be easy, but they agree that countries in the region have a key role to play in maintaining pressure on the government to go.
“The government will continue to suffocate, to try to eliminate, in a symbolic, but also in a physical way, all kinds of opposition … to maintain the power, the business and the benefits to be in power,” Tappata said.
Her colleague, Marta Valinas, noted it was not part of the fact-finding mission’s mandate to make recommendations regarding a political solution to the humanitarian crisis engulfing Venezuela.
However, she stressed the importance of keeping “the ideas and concepts of justice and reparation at the center” of a possible negotiated “exit strategy.”
“Whatever could be the solution to the current political crisis in Venezuela … what needs to be at the center is justice, accountability for the violations that have been committed, reparation for the victims that have suffered these violations,” she said.
The Maduro government has not responded to the findings in the report, which will be submitted Friday to the U.N. human rights council.
