UN human rights experts condemn tightening of repression in Venezuela over disputed election result

GENEVA (AP) — Independent U.N. human rights experts said Tuesday in a new report that their findings indicate Venezuela’s government has stepped up its use of the “harshest and most brutal” tools of repression following a disputed July presidential election.

The official results of the July 28 vote have been widely criticized as undemocratic and unclear, and aimed at keeping President Nicolás Maduro in power.

In its report, the fact-finding mission on Venezuela, commissioned by the UN-backed Human Rights Council, condemned rights violations, including arbitrary detention, torture and sexual and gender-based violence committed by the country’s security forces, which “taken as a whole constitutes a crime against humanity of persecution on political grounds.”

“During the period covered by this report, and especially after the presidential elections of July 28, 2024, the state reactivated and tightened the harshest and most brutal mechanisms of its repressive apparatus,” the experts said in the report, which covered the one-year period to August 31.

The results echo concerns expressed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Human Rights Watch and others about Venezuela and its democracy, including the repression before and after the much-anticipated vote and the subsequent flight into exile of Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, which includes many Maduro supporters, said he won with 52 percent of the vote. But opposition supporters collected ballots from 80 percent of the country’s electronic voting machines and said they showed González won the election — with twice as many votes as Maduro.

Global condemnation of the lack of transparency prompted Maduro to ask Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice, whose members align with the ruling party, to conduct an audit of the results. The Supreme Court confirmed his victory.

Independent experts who do not represent the United Nations have condemned government actions aimed at suppressing peaceful opposition to its rule.

The justice system – headed by the Supreme Court – “is clearly subordinated” to the interests of Maduro and his close allies and has been “a key tool in the plan to suppress all forms of political and social opposition,” they wrote.

In the hours after Maduro was declared victorious, thousands of people took to the streets across Venezuela. The protests were mostly peaceful, but demonstrators also toppled statues of Maduro’s predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez, threw rocks at law enforcement officers and buildings, and burned police motorcycles and government propaganda.

The Maduro government has responded to the demonstrations with force, carrying out arbitrary detentions, launching criminal proceedings, and running a campaign encouraging people to report relatives, neighbors, or other acquaintances who participated in the protests or challenged their results.

The independent experts said they based their report on interviews with 383 people and a review of court records and other documents, but acknowledged that information-gathering capabilities were limited in the period after the election.

The experts said their requests for information to Venezuelan authorities had been “ignored”, despite appeals for cooperation from the Human Rights Council, which is made up of rotating members from 47 UN member states.

Associated Press journalists Regina Garcia Cano in Mexico City and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.