View of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. Independent human rights activists: repression in Venezuela has reached ‘unprecedented levels’ Human Rights
Violence against opponents of the Venezuelan government has reached an unprecedented level, representatives of the independent human rights Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela said on Tuesday. Among the methods used by the government of Nicolás Maduro to maintain power, the human rights activists mentioned mass arrests, sexual violence and torture.
Violence and threats
Testimonies from victims collected before, during and after the July 28 elections that brought Maduro to power for a third time point to “one of the most acute human rights crises in modern history,” the mission said.
According to the head of the mission, Marta Vallinas, speaking to journalists in Geneva, the evidence collected by investigators indicates that there has been no improvement in Venezuela in recent times and that “unprecedented levels of violence” have been reached. All this, according to human rights activists, indicates “a strengthening of the state’s repressive machinery” against critics.
Following the latest re-election of Nicolás Maduro, whose announcement of victory sparked widespread protests across Venezuela, investigators have confirmed 25 deaths of regime opponents.
Arrests without warrants
Most of the victims of the new wave of repression, the report says, are “young people under 30 from densely populated areas, including two children.” 24 people died from gunshot wounds, and another was beaten to death.
The report says that after the presidential elections, government bodies “lost all semblance of independence,” leaving citizens defenseless against government abuses.
“We have documented more than 40 cases in which security forces have entered private homes without warrants, using social media videos they believe to be evidence of protests or criticism of the government as the only evidence of guilt,” said Francisco Cox Vial, a member of the fact-finding mission.
Children among those arrested
According to independent investigators, about 120 people were arrested during opposition events in July, and more than 2,000 were detained in the first week of post-election protests, according to government figures. Among them are about 100 children who were charged with terrorism and incitement to hatred “with serious violations of procedural norms.”
“Many of those detained during this period were subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as sexual violence, which was applied not only to women and girls, but also to men: they were beaten with electric shocks, blunt objects, suffocated with plastic bags, immersed in cold water and forcibly deprived of sleep,” said Patricia Tappata Valdés, a member of the fact-finding mission.
“We cannot ignore the fact that these violations represent a clear and deliberate line by the authorities on politically motivated persecution,” added Francisco Cox Vial. “We have concluded that many of these violations constitute crimes against humanity.”