The report denounces that the Maduro regime did not take effective action to identify, investigate, prosecute, or punish officials who may have committed human rights violations or who were involved in corruption cases.
This Monday, March 20, the United States Government published a report on the Human rights violations committed by the Nicolás Maduro regime. The document lists murders, disappearances and torture committed by state security forces
“Increasingly unpopular with citizens, the Maduro regime relies on civilian and military intelligence services and, to a lesser extent, pro-regime armed gangs known as colectivos, to neutralize political opposition and subdue the population. », highlights the report.
“There are reports that members of the security forces committed numerous abuses. A September UN report detailed the systematic use of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service and the Military Counter-Intelligence Directorate to intimidate and control the activities of political opponents.”, says the White House document.
murders
The letter details numerous reports in which arbitrary or illegal homicides committed by the Maduro regime are reported.
“Although the regime did not release statistics on extrajudicial killings, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) reported that national, state and municipal police forces, as well as the armed forces and regime-supported collectives, carried out hundreds of executions during the year”, reviewed infobae.
Among the dozens of cases denounced is a massacre committed by the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB). On March 20, 2022 members of the army murdered four indigenous people and wounded five others from the Yanomami community in the state of Amazonas. The altercation would have started when FANB members refused to return an internet router that belonged to the indigenous people.
Washington points out that the Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office, headed by Tarek William Saab, has not investigated in a timely manner the crimes committed by the Chavista security forces and refuses to give figures of officers who are being investigated or who are in the trial stage.
The report also points to assassinations against environmental leaders, politicians and even a police officer accused of corruption who died while being tortured and interrogated.
disappearances
The report indicates 246 disappearances or kidnappings between January and June in the border states of Táchira, Falcón, Zulia, Bolívar, Apure and Amazonas. According to investigations that the NGO Fundaredes documented in the border region, irregular armed groups and criminal gangs were complicit with the regime’s security forces in human rights violations, including disappearances.
“The Maduro regime continued to deny the requests of the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances or involuntary to visit the country to conduct research. In 2020, the Working Group denounced 29 pending cases of forced or involuntary disappearances,” the document states.
torture
The document released by the White House points to credible reports that Maduro’s security forces regularly tortured and abused detainees.
Many of those tortured are political prisoners or members of the security forces who have denounced the terrifying methods applied by the Maduro regime to torture. Some people have died while being tortured.
“On January 6, 2022, Army Lieutenant Colonel Igbert José Marín Chaparro, a political prisoner detained by the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), ended a hunger strike that began on December 21, 2021, in protest for the poor conditions of detention and the torture received while in detention. Marín Chaparro issued a public letter requesting various international institutions to investigate the use of torture mechanisms used against him and other prisoners, such as the Casa de los Sueños, punishment cells in the basement of the DGCIM headquarters. Marin Chaparro also reported that he was tortured with bags over his head, tear gas, and repeated blows that broke his ribs.”, the report states.
Also read: The republic that tortures
Political prisoners
During the dictatorship, the report notes, Maduro used the judiciary to intimidate and prosecute people critical of the regime’s policies or actions. As of November 28, Foro Penal reported 277 political prisoners in Venezuelan jails and detention centers.
“Foro Penal data reported between January 2014 and November 2022 showed that 15,777 people were detained for political reasons and 875 civilians were unconstitutionally prosecuted before the military criminal jurisdiction. Foro Penal recorded that more than 9,400 people were still subject to arbitrary criminal proceedings for politically motivated precautionary measures. The regime habitually kept political prisoners at the SEBIN facilities, the Ramo Verde military prison or at the DGCIM headquarters in Boleita, Caracas,” the document states.
Freedom of expression
According to the report and supported by data from the NGO Espacio Público, in 2022 228 cases of violations of freedom of expression were reported in 128 cases between January and August, including censorship, intimidation, verbal and judicial harassment, threats, assaults , one death and 14 arrests.
He in the document indicates that on April 18, Olga Mata and Florencio Gil were arrested for “inciting hatred” after posting a video on TikTok that criticized Diosdado Cabello and Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores.. The regime’s attorney general, Saab, also mentioned in the TikTok video, announced the arrest and charged the two with “instigating the murder of public figures.”
Also read: Public Space: 28 violations of freedom of expression were registered in February
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