UN experts condemn repression in Venezuela after disputed elections

GENEVA —

Independent UN human rights experts said in a new report released Tuesday that their findings indicate the Venezuelan government has intensified its use of the “harshest and most brutal” tools of repression following a controversial presidential election in July.

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.

Venezuela’s diplomatic mission in Geneva said it did not recognise the mandate of the fact-finding mission and declined to comment on the Associated Press report, though it is likely to refer to it when it is presented to the council later this week.

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.

Marta Valiñas, head of the team of experts, said Venezuelan authorities confirmed the arrest of more than 2,200 people between July 29 and August 6.

“We have confirmed the arrest of at least 158 ​​children, some of whom were disabled,” Valiñas told reporters at a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday, noting that some of them were accused of serious crimes such as terrorism.

“This is a new and extremely disturbing phenomenon,” she said. “We are facing a systematic, coordinated and deliberate repression by the Venezuelan government, which is responding to a deliberate plan to silence all forms of dissent.”

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, which includes many Maduro supporters, said he won the election 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 — 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.

The independent experts, who do not represent the United Nations, are a fact-finding mission established in 2019. They have been reporting for years on rights abuses — including alleged crimes against humanity — in Venezuela under Maduro. This report, the fifth of its kind, condemns the government’s efforts to suppress peaceful opposition to his 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.

Patricia Tappatá Valdez, a member of the team of experts, said at least 143 arrests had been confirmed, involving members of seven opposition parties, including 66 leaders of political movements.

“The politically motivated persecution is clear,” she said. “These numbers represent a level of repression we haven’t seen since 2019.”

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.

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