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.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS