The NGO Prova alerted Wednesday about the chronic use of the state of exception in Venezuela, after The Government of Nicolás Maduro announced an external shock decree Before the “threat” that, he says, represents the military deployment in the Caribbean Sea by the United States, a country that maintains a fleet in the area with the argument to combat drug trafficking.
Through its X account, the organization pointed out: “Chronic abuse of the figure of exception states has spread over the last 10 years, turning exceptionality into daily life to strengthen social control over the population.”
Prova recalled that, in 2015, the Venezuelan Executive promulgated eight exception states that affected 26 municipalities from 4 border states, before what described as the presence of “paramilitarism, drug trafficking and extraction smuggling.” According to the NGO, this resulted in the criminalization and stigmatization of hundreds of border inhabitants, who were accused of being “bachaqueros (basic products resellers), smugglers and traitors to the country.”
In this context, the organization mentioned that military were accused of the alleged commission of more than 19 indigenous murders, as well as dozens of cruel torture and treatment cases, inhuman and degrading in the Zulia state. He pointed out that in Táchira there was forced displacement towards Colombia of more than 20,000 people fleeing violence.
Prova says that external shock decree is used as “excuse”
As of May 2016, Venezuela was subjected to a “state of exception and economic emergency” that, according to Prova, was extended continuously and unconstitutionally. This measure, according to the organization, usurped the functions of Parliament – then controlled by the opposition – and created a “legality” parallel to the Constitution.
Prova also indicated that in September 2018 the state of economic emergency was extended, and that in March 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, a state of alarm was declared in the country.
The NGO He affirmed that none of the exception state decrees dictated during the Maduro government has complied with the principles of proportionality and temporality established in the Constitution and the Organic Law on states of exception.
In addition, he pointed out that this figure has been used as a “excuse” to “increase repression, persecution for political reasons and strengthen the social control of the population under the narrative of the ‘Nation’s Security Defense’.”
Prova showed concern about the recent announcement of an external shock decree, another type of state of exception, under the justification of the “defense of sovereignty.” In his opinion, with this measure it would be taking “a crucial step towards the total militarization of the country”, which could climb the human rights abuse commission.
The president of the Venezuelan Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, said that Maduro has “prepared and ready” the decree of external shock, one day after the official leader announced the beginning of a process of consultations on the document.
