The UN Fact-Finding Mission in Venezuela said Friday that the risk of the rule of law breaking down in the country “is very high” following the worsening of the human rights situation and the reactivation of the government’s “repressive machinery” following the July 28 elections.
“These violations are the result of a plan designed in advance and executed through different forms of repression: a plan to discourage, silence, and nullify political opposition and critical voices to the Government of President Maduro or those who demand transparency in the election results,” said the president of the Mission, Marta Valiñas, in the Human Rights Council.
The Mission presented its latest report today, in which it notes that the recent human rights abuses it has been able to document – such as arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual violence – are a continuation of violations it had previously considered to constitute crimes against humanity.
Valiñas said that during the electoral campaign, between July 4 and 25, the Mission documented up to 121 arrests of people who were arrested simply for having provided some service in opposition campaign events.
The arrests investigated by the UN team were arbitrary and in some cases “followed by acts of torture and short-term enforced disappearances.”
Despite government warnings about the possibility of violence if Maduro did not win the election, there were 915 protests across the country between July 29 and 31, with 25 confirmed deaths, with one exception from gunshot wounds, according to the report.
“The Mission does not yet have sufficient evidence to attribute responsibility in these cases, but in several cases the presence of members of the National Guard or the National Police using their firearms to suppress protests has been documented,” said Valiñas.
The Mission’s president indicated that “a series of torture methods used by security forces or intelligence services were identified, such as punches, beatings with wooden planks or bats wrapped in foam, and electric shocks, asphyxiation with plastic bags” among others.
The jurist said that the international community “has a great responsibility to stop this persecution, to ensure that the violations and crimes that have been committed and continue to be committed do not go unpunished and to provide encouragement to the victims by ensuring that they can obtain justice.”
Venezuela’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Alexander Yáñez, vehemently rejected the Mission’s allegations and said that the wave of post-election violence has been generated “by the fascist right in Venezuela” that “used criminal gangs to attack people and burn and destroy public institutions.”
“These were not peaceful protests,” the diplomat said, calling on countries to reject the Mission’s report, which he described as a “grotesque written mockery.”
Ecuador, speaking on behalf of Argentina, Chile, Canada, Paraguay, Guatemala, Uruguay and itself, called on the Venezuelan government to cease repression and deplored “the lack of independence of the National Electoral Council and the Supreme Court of Justice.”
She called for the treatment of detained minors in accordance with international standards, urged “impartial verification of the election results” and supported the Human Rights Council renewing the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission for Venezuela, which expires shortly.
Caracas / EFE
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2024-09-22 03:23:43
