A United Nations report stated Tuesday that the Venezuelan authorities’ repression of the protests following the July 28 elections reached an unprecedented level of violence, including the commission of human rights violations. The report was conducted by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Republic of Venezuela and examined the human rights situation in the country between September 1, 2023, and August 31, 2024.
During this period, the investigation outlined that Venezuelan authorities’ acts to quell the massive protests that swept the country following the announcement of the presidential election results. Abuses included deaths during protests, arbitrary detentions, short-term enforced disappearances, inhuman treatment, and torture.
Based on testimonies from the victims and their families, the UN investigative mission reported 25 cases of death during the first two days of the protests that started on July 29. Most of the victims were young people under 30 who died from gunshot wounds. Nevertheless, the report specified that the evidence gathered so far doesn’t allow the conclusion that Venezuelan security forces were responsible for these deaths. The report further added that in July, authorities arrested over 2,000 people, among whom there were children with disabilities and who faced charges of terrorism. On top of that, the criminal proceedings that followed these detentions violated due process guarantees. This included arrests without warrants, failure to respect the 48-hour limit to bring a detainee to court, and denying the detainees the right to appoint a lawyer of their choice.
Furthermore, the report pointed out that many of the arrested people had to endure torture and degrading treatment, including electric shocks, beating, immersion in cold water, and sexual abuse. The report also recorded an increase in the restrictions on civic rights and intensive harassment of the work of journalists and civil society organizations.
The UN-mandated mission added that the human rights violations targeted mainly those who criticized Maduro’s government or contested the electoral results. It focused on members of the political opposition, military personnel, former officials, journalists, and human rights activists. For this reason, the mission asserted that it had reasonable grounds to believe that Venezuelan authorities committed the crime of “persecution on political grounds.”
The UN’s Tuesday report confirmed the results of a previous report published in August. Nevertheless, Tuesday’s report revealed that not only has there been no improvement, but the repressive measures intensified and plunged the country into “one of the most acute human rights crises in recent history.”
The repressed protests followed the contested results of the July 28 presidential election when both candidates, Nicolas Maduro and Edmundo Gonzalez, claimed victory. This sparked mass protests that rapidly escalated to a wave of unrest in the country as opposition leaders and supporters refused to recognize the results announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE). Many foreign countries, such as the US, Chile, Guatemala, and the EU, called on the CNE to release the official voting records. The Venezuelan government didn’t respond to these demands. However, earlier this month, authorities released 86 teenagers who were arrested during the demonstrations.
