Maduro Regime Intensifying Repression in Venezuela, Says UN Human Rights Report

Opponents of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government protest in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas on July 29, 2024. Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images

United Nations human rights experts say President Nicolás Maduro’s government has intensified its use of the “harshest and most violent” tools of repression in Venezuela in the wake of a disputed election in July.

The U.N. report says Venezuela’s security forces, who are loyal to Maduro and the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, have carried out arbitrary detentions, torture, and sexual violence, which “taken as a whole, constitute the crime against humanity of persecution on political grounds.”

The National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro, the socialist incumbent, the winner of the July 28 presidential election, despite evidence suggesting he had lost in a landslide to opposition candidate Edmundo González, who has now gone into exile in Spain.

The opposition obtained voting tallies which suggested González had won 73 percent of the accessible votes, twice as much as Maduro.

The United States and numerous other countries have said they do not recognize Maduro as president after what they regard as an undemocratic and opaque poll, and last month one of the five members of the CNE broke cover and criticized the “grave lack of transparency and veracity” in the process.

The fact-finding mission on Venezuela, which answers to the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights, Volker Türk, said, “During the period covered by this report, and especially after the presidential election of July 28, 2024, the state reactivated and intensified the harshest and most violent mechanisms of its repressive apparatus.”

‘Intensification of State’s Repressive Machinery’

Marta Valiñas, chair of the fact-finding mission, said: “We are witnessing an intensification of the state’s repressive machinery in response to what it perceives as critical views, opposition or dissent.

“Although this is a continuation of previous patterns, that the mission has already characterized as crimes against humanity, the recent repression, due to its intensity and systematic nature, represents a very serious attack on the fundamental rights of the Venezuelan people, committed despite several calls both inside and outside the country to respect human rights,” said Valiñas, a Portuguese lawyer and human rights expert.

In the wake of Maduro being declared winner of the election, thousands of demonstrators protested on the streets of the capital, Caracas, and other cities against the regime.

The demonstrations were largely peaceful but some activists toppled statues of Maduro’s predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez, and burned police motorcycles.

The Venezuelan security forces and pro-government militias reacted violently.

The report said Venezuela’s attorney general admitted 25 people had been killed during the protests on July 29 and 30.

It investigated those deaths and said there was “circumstantial evidence” the protesters were killed by the security forces or by pro-government vigilantes.

The report said: “The mission documented that armed civilians were present and shooting during several protests, either interacting with the security forces or acting alone. In several of the cases investigated, members of the Bolivarian National Guard or the Bolivarian National Police used their firearms to repress protesters.”

It also accused the government of carrying out at least 39 “arbitrary detentions”—of 32 men and seven women—of “real or perceived opponents of the government” after July 28.

The report said, “In most of the cases investigated, the detentions involved or were followed by serious and systematic violations of due process.”

The mission’s findings echo concerns outlined by the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and several human rights groups.

The U.N. fact-finding mission accused the Venezuelan criminal justice system of being “clearly subordinated” to the interests of Maduro and the ruling party.

Courts ‘Instrument’ of Repression

It said the courts were used as a “key instrument in its plan to repress all forms of political and social opposition.”

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado (R) talks to the media, accompanied by opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, following the presidential election results in Caracas on July 29, 2024. Federico Parra/AFP via Getty Images

The fact-finding mission said they compiled the report through interviews with 383 people and reviews of court case files and other documents.

The apparent winner of the election, 75-year-old González, is wanted by the Venezuelan authorities on charges of conspiracy and other crimes.

He fled to Spain on Sept. 8, and last week Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on social media platform X, “I give a warm welcome in our country to Edmundo Gonzalez, whom we receive showing him Spain’s humanitarian commitment and solidarity with Venezuelans.”

On Sept. 15 two Spaniards, three U.S. citizens, and a Czech were arrested in Venezuela and accused of being part of a CIA-backed plot to assassinate Maduro.

The U.S. government has denied involvement in any such plot.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.