Ongoing state-led repression in Venezuela may amount to crimes against humanity.

BACKGROUND:

On 28 July Venezuela held presidential elections with widespread voter turnout. While the government-controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) declared incumbent President Nicolás Maduro the winner, a large number of the available tally copies from polling centers documented an estimated 67 percent of votes for the leading opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia. Protests subsequently erupted across Venezuela. The UN and Carter Center both observed the election inside Venezuela and expressed serious concerns about the lack of transparency and credibility of the results announced by the CNE. Since then, the government has rapidly intensified widespread repression and targeted persecution of actual or alleged opponents, including ordinary citizens, opposition members, journalists and human rights defenders.

The presidential election was viewed by many Venezuelans as a vital opportunity for a long-term democratic transition and an end to the country’s decade-long multidimensional crisis. Following years of endemic corruption and the gradual erosion of the rule of law and democratic space, in 2014 mass protests first erupted in Venezuela in response to insecurity, hyperinflation and a lack of essential services. Security forces reacted with disproportionate force, torture and sexual violence. Since then, under President Maduro, the Venezuelan government, including its security and intelligence apparatus, has perpetrated systematic arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, sexual and gender-based violence and short-term enforced disappearances targeting actual and perceived opponents. Various security forces have also allegedly perpetrated tens of thousands of extrajudicial killings in the name of combating crime, predominantly targeting men between 18 and 30 years-old living in low-income neighborhoods. Over the past decade, an estimated 8 million Venezuelans have left the country in what is considered the largest migration crisis in recent Latin American history.

The UN Human Rights Council (HRC)-mandated Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Venezuela, which was established in 2019, has found on multiple occasions that some violations and abuses committed since at least 2014 were part of a “widespread and systematic attack” against the civilian population and are “part of a plan orchestrated at the highest levels of the government to repress dissent through crimes against humanity.” The government has consistently refused to cooperate with the FFM and in February 2024 demanded the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) withdraw its staff from the country.

Communities across Venezuela, including Indigenous Peoples, also remain at heightened risk of egregious abuses by armed groups, criminal gangs or other non-state actors, acting at times with the consent and direct involvement of Venezuelan state agents who have been implicated in possible crimes against humanity.

Since 2017 the European Union (EU) has maintained sanctions against more than 50 senior officials. The United States (US) government has also imposed targeted sanctions against the Venezuelan government, as well as broader sectoral sanctions that have exacerbated the country’s pre-existing complex humanitarian emergency. On 24 April 2024 the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court inaugurated an in-country office in Caracas, while emphasizing that investigations into possible crimes against humanity will be pursued “simultaneously, and without delay.”

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS:

On 31 July the FFM warned of a “new wave of persecution,” including through “the accelerated reactivation of the repressive machinery that was never dismantled and is now being used to undermine the public freedoms of citizens.” Venezuelan non-governmental organization (NGO) Foro Penal has verified the detention of 1,503 individuals between 29 July and 18 August. At least 23 individuals have been killed in post-electoral violence. In response to growing concern over electoral fraud, a large number of cross-regional governments have demanded Venezuelan authorities release detailed accounts from polling stations. On 15 August the National Assembly passed legislation known as the “NGO Law,” jeopardizing the work, safety and security of organizations across the country.

Rapidly intensifying repression has been accompanied by hate speech and inflammatory rhetoric by high-level officials. On 3 August President Maduro announced that thousands of detainees will be sent to maximum security prisons and called on Venezuelans to use telecommunication channels to register data of protesters and other alleged opponents. Security forces have also intensified targeted persecution of opposition members, media workers and civil society activists. Attorney General Tarek William Saab has threatened human rights defenders engaging with UN mechanisms with arrest upon return to Venezuela.

Government repression had already intensified in the months leading up to the presidential election. Human rights organizations warned about growing early warning signs of a deteriorating situation marked by targeted persecution, attacks against civic space and a systematic campaign against political opposition. The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances reported on 30 April that opposition members and the military were the primary targets of an alarming rise of enforced disappearances.

ANALYSIS:

Venezuela is facing a highly volatile period ahead of the official inauguration of a new administration in January, as well as scheduled regional, municipal and parliamentary elections during 2025. Compared with other periods over the past decade, the current tensions and patterns of repression are unprecedented.

Mass arrests, enforced disappearances and public announcements of targeted persecution campaigns against actual or alleged opponents leaves populations at imminent risk of crimes against humanity. Intensifying government repression has also increased existing vulnerabilities of an estimated 19 million Venezuelans inside the country who are in need of assistance.

Refusal by authorities to ensure transparency over the electoral process is also risking a period of renewed regional and international isolation, with disastrous effects for Venezuelans inside and outside the country. Independent monitoring, including by the FFM, is essential to prevent the recurrence of crimes against humanity and alert the international community to appropriate prevention strategies.

Venezuela’s judicial system is perpetuating impunity for possible atrocity crimes. Government-linked media outlets also play a key role in state repression and persecution. Mass detentions and the use of telecommunication channels to persecute alleged opponents – including protesters from low-income neighborhoods – are used to maintain social control and instill fear.

RISK ASSESSMENT:

• • Senior government officials involved in the planning and commission of violent acts, including possible crimes against humanity.
  • Lack of independent and impartial judiciary and other state institutions, as well as impunity for or tolerance of serious violations of international law, including atrocity crimes.
  • Adoption of measures to criminalize civil society organizations and attacks against democratic institutions and electoral guarantees, particularly in the context of the 2024 elections and ahead of scheduled general elections in 2025.
  • Absence of accountable state authority, presence of non-state armed actors and high levels of crime, corruption and illicit economic exploitation in large parts of the country.
  • Political motives to continue systematic repression aimed at consolidation of power.

NECESSARY ACTION:

Venezuelan authorities must immediately end the systematic repression and targeted persecution of all actual or alleged opponents, release all individuals subject to arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances and refrain from hate speech and inflammatory rhetoric. The government should commit to a political solution to the crisis and ensure genuine and comprehensive reform, as well as impartial investigations of all serious violations and abuses.

Latin American governments, the EU, Canada, US and other stakeholders should identify coordinated mitigation strategies to ensure a political solution to the crisis. All remaining diplomatic channels to the Maduro government – including by Colombia, Brazil and Mexico – should be used to advance mediation efforts to avoid rapidly intensifying repression and an imminent risk of atrocity crimes. The international donor community should expand their support for civil society organizations documenting human rights violations and providing humanitarian relief to populations in need.

At the HRC’s 57th session, UN member states should adopt a resolution renewing the investigative and reporting mandates of the FFM and OHCHR in full.