MIAMI, United States. – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) denounced this Tuesday that the re-election of the Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro, who plans to be sworn in for a third term this January 10, “does not enjoy democratic legitimacy” due to the opacity with which they were carried out. held the presidential elections on July 28 in the South American country.
Six months after the elections, the National Electoral Council (CNE) – an entity controlled by Chavismo – has still not published the results and its website remains out of service, supposedly due to a computer attack.
According to the report released this Tuesday by the IACHRthe protests that broke out due to the lack of transparency and allegations of fraud were violently repressed: “State repression included practices of state terrorism aimed especially at instilling terror in citizens and silencing dissident voices.”
The document also states that more than 300 demonstrations were broken up through extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture and other inhuman treatment, in addition to the annulment of passports and failure to comply with judicial guarantees.
The report adds that the Government of Venezuela “executed a planned strategy aimed at preventing the political participation of the opposition, hindering the development of a free, fair and competitive contest, and repressing social protests caused by electoral opacity and allegations of fraud. ”.
Likewise, it points out that the CNE refused to publish the voting minutes and suspended the audits after the process. The opposition, on the other hand, claims to have obtained “more than 80% of the minutes digitized,” which would make the candidate Edmundo González Urrutia the winner with 67% of the votes.
The IACHR formally requests to visit the country to verify compliance with the recommendations and warns that “the political and human rights crisis in Venezuela is the result of the total cooptation of state institutions by a regime that seeks above all to remain illegitimately in power.” power.” The agency warns that this has led to a “serious alteration of the constitutional order.”
Meanwhile, González Urrutia is on tour in Latin America and the United States, where met with President Joe Bidenwith the intention of returning to Venezuela and claiming the victory he claims to have obtained. For her part, the leader María Corina Machado called for a demonstration in the streets for January 9, one day before Maduro’s inauguration. At the same time, Chavismo maintains a wide deployment of military and police forces for that same day.
The IACHR report recalls that thousands of people were detained after election day, including dozens of minors, and although in recent weeks the Government granted release measures to hundreds of inmates, arrests and political persecution persist. The regional organization urges the international community to “remain vigilant against new repressive escalations and activate all diplomatic and institutional channels for the return of democracy” in Venezuela.
