Independent UN human rights experts said in a new report yesterday that their findings show Venezuela’s government has intensified the use of the “harshest and most violent” tools of repression following the disputed July 28 presidential election.
The official results have been widely criticized as undemocratic, opaque and aimed to keep Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in power.
In its report, the fact-finding mission on Venezuela, commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, denounced rights violations, including arbitrary detentions, torture, and sexual and gender-based violence by the country’s security forces that “taken as a whole, constitute the crime against humanity of persecution on political grounds.”
Photo: AP
“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,” said the experts in the report, which covered a one-year period through Aug. 31.
The findings echo concerns from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Human Rights Watch and others about Venezuela and its democracy, including repression before and after the highly anticipated vote and the subsequent flight into exile of Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez.
Marta Valinas, head of the experts team, said that from July 29 to Aug. 6, Venezuelan authorities acknowledged they arrested more than 2,200 people.
“Of these, we have confirmed the arrest of at least 158 children — some with disabilities,” Valinas told reporters at a news conference yesterday in Geneva, Switzerland, adding that some had been accused of serious crimes, such as terrorism.
“This phenomenon is something new and extremely worrying,” she said. “We are facing a systematic, coordinated and deliberate repression by the Venezuelan government which responds to a conscious plan to silence any form of dissent.”
The Venezuelan National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, said he won the election with 52 percent of the vote. However, opposition supporters collected tally sheets from 80 percent of the nation’s electronic voting machines, and said those indicated Gonzalez had won the election — with twice as many votes as Maduro.
The independent experts, who do not represent the UN, comprise a fact-finding mission created in 2019. They have been reporting on rights violations, including alleged crimes against humanity, under Maduro for years.
This report, the fifth of its kind, decried the government’s efforts to crush peaceful opposition to its rule.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
RSS