Venezuela’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), Joaquín Pérez, denounced that a cyber coup has been taking place in the country since the presidential elections were held, in which President Nicolás Maduro emerged victorious.
The diplomat expressed this during the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime: Strengthening international cooperation in combating certain crimes committed through information and communications technology systems and on the electronic transmission of evidence of serious crimes.
Pérez reported that the Venezuelan electoral system, which is completely electronic and automated, has been the victim of “more than thirty million cyberattacks per minute” since the elections, an issue that was followed by massive attacks against all government portals.
He said the massive attack was part of a destabilization plan that sought to create an “information blackout” to “consolidate a cyber coup against the nation’s authorities and constitutional institutions.”
The diplomatic representative also asserted that such actions are carried out “to restrict the right to inform and be informed; to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign States, including their electoral processes; to foment chaos, anxiety and violent extremism leading to terrorism.”
Pérez explained to the plenary session of the convention that Venezuela has been the target of cyber attacks against the National Electric System and other strategic sectors, including the country’s oil and gas industry.
