UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : HRC57 - Human Rights in Venezuela

Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, as announced before, agenda item 4, entitled Human rights situation that required the Council attention is open.

We shall begin the interactive dialogue on the report of the Independent International Fact Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The list of speakers will close in 15 minutes and it is this afternoon.

My pleasure to welcome the distinguished members of the Commission, Mrs Marta Valinas, Mr Francisco Coxville and Mrs Patricia Tapatia Valdez.

I now give the floor to the chair of the Fact Finding Mission to present the report.

Sir, you have the floor.

Madam, you will report.

Please go ahead, Gracias Singer, President.

Thank you, President.

Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, The Independent International Fact Finding Mission on the Valerian Republic of Venezuela submits its 5th report to the Council in accordance with its Resolution 5129.

This report, together with a accompanying conference room paper to be published in the coming weeks, covers the period from the 1st of September 2023 and the 31st of August 2024.

By the past year, in particular, since the presidential elections of 28 July, there has been a worsening of the human rights situation.

The Mission is aware that this report has special significance because of the current political and human rights circumstances in Venezuela.

The repressive machinery of the Venezuelan state continues to commit serious violations of human rights and violations of the victims and the population in Germans are helpless in the face of the arbitrary exercise of power.

In the context in which the slightest semblance of legality in the actions of the authorities is disappearing, the risk of a breakdown of the rule of law in Venezuela is very ****.

Since July 28th, when the National Electoral Council announced President Madhur's victory in the presidential election without showing evidence of it, repression and political persecution have been increasing.

According to the Mission's findings, 25 people were killed in the post election protests.

A very **** number of people were detained, including children and persons with disabilities, and several people are victims of short term enforced disappearances.

We have received allegations and we have been able to document cases of people subjected to TRUEL and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment as well as acts of sexual and gender based violence.

Following the presidential election, the Mission had to adjust its plan to carry out fact finding in order to bring to the attention of the Council the preliminary results of its investigations into the events committed after 28 July.

The set of violations that have been documented and investigated in this report only represent a sample of a much broader universe and cannot be understood only as a product of the post electoral crisis.

These violations are a result of a plan designed in advance and executed through different forms of repression, a plan to discourage, silence and nullify the political opposition and voices critical of the government of President Maduro or those who demand transparency in the electoral results.

In this context, the Mission concluded that some of the serious violations of human rights investigated during this represent a continuation of the same line of conduct that was characterised by the Mission in its previous reports as crimes against humanity.

The Mission understand that some of the violations documented during the time frame of its mandate, including arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual violence, as well as other related violence of fundamental rights, including freedom of association, assembly and freedom of expression, taken together constitute the crime against humanity of persecution based on political motives.

Mr.

President, in March, during our oral update to this Council, the Mission recalled that the repressive structure of the State had not been dismantled and that it continued to resent a latent thread that could be activated when the government deemed it necessary.

The numerous events that took place during the period leading up to the presidential elections confirmed that we were facing a phase of reactivation of this repressive machinery.

During the reporting period, targeted political repression of opponents or perceived opponents continued.

Between December 2023 and March 2024, at least 48 persons, 39 men and nine women, including civilians and military personnel, were arrested in connection with what the authorities considered to be conspiracies to stabilise the country, overthrow the government or attempt on the life of the president or other senior authorities.

This equates to at least three arrests every week.

Every week for four months, the mission investigate cases, diplomatic cases of arbitrary detentions of well known personalities, such as the lawyer and human rights defender Rosio San Miguel and her relatives.

We also investigate the political persecution against the opposition, especially against militants and national regional leaders of Vente Venezuela.

Five members of this political organisations with arrest warrants since March 2024, along with another person close to this opposition group, took refuge in the residence of the Argentine ambassador in Caracas and were granted asylum.

After the expulsion of the diplomatic representation of that country, Brazil took over the custody of the residents with the ICE lease in it.

However, on September 7th, the Venezuelan government decided to revoke the approval grant to Brazil to guard Argentina's diplomatic facilities.

In addition, during the election campaign between the 4th and 25th of July, the mission delegated documented up to 121 arrests of people who were arrested simply for having provided some service in opposition campaign events.

Many of the dimensions investigated by the mission during the run up to the elections were arbitrary and were sometimes followed by torture and short term enforced disappearances.

These violations constant the most violent expression of the inaugural administrative and judicial obstacles, the legitimate political action of the opposition.

Mr.

President, the critical human rights situation reached an unprecedented level in recent years following the announcement of the election results in the early hours of 29 July.

Even before the elections, President Malouda and other ****-ranking officials had warned of the possibility of an outbreak of violence if they did not achieve electoral victory.

The wave of citizen protests that followed the announcement was repressed with unusual harshness and violence.

According to sources from civil society organisations, between 29 July and 6th of August, 915 protests were registered.

The Mission investigated in a preliminary matter and confirmed the violent death of 25 persons in the context of citizens rallies or protests.

24 of them died from gunshots, most of them young men from different neighbourhoods under 30 years of age.

The Mission does not yet have sufficient evidence to attribute responsibility in these cases of death, but in several of these cases the Mission managed to document the presence of members of the Bolivian National Guard or the National Police using their fire firearms to repress the protests.

The security forces were sometimes accompanied by groups of armed civilians who also fired firearms against demonstrators.

Arrests in this.

Reached figures not recorded since 2019.

The same authorities recognised the detention of more than 2200 people between July 29 and six August alone, although the detention of members of the political opposition, members of civil society, including journalists, continues.

Most of the victims of arrest after the elections came from popular neighbourhoods and were identified by security forces after obtaining videos or photos published on social networks or by informing on people related to the ruling poppy in response to calls from the president itself.

These arrests were massive and indiscriminate and were carried out based on preconceived plans, such as the threatening Tun Tun operation.

In the last month and a half, the mission and has documented 143 arrests, including 66 militants or leaders of seven different opposition parties, initiated the investigation of 12 of those arrests.

Security forces entered private homes without the necessary court orders and detained people to the desperation of relatives.

In the cases investigated by mission, staff members did not even know the name of persons to be arrested.

Those of people that participate in process or who are suspected of Ang Dunstan were marked with an X.

The President Maduro said the detainees should be sent to labour camps for re education.

In this context, the mission documented the detention of at least 158 children, 130 boys and 28 girls, a phenomenon never before recorded on such a scale.

These children were arrested after the protests, charged with serious crimes such as terrorism or incitement of hatred.

Pending further investigation, the Mission has already been able to document serious violations of international standards for the protection of children.

Mr.

President, the Mission noted that the practise of short term enforced disappearances has not ceased.

Based on a strict interpretation of international standards, the Mission found reasonable grounds to believe that in 13 cases, state agents carried out the probations of liberty and refused to recognise the fate or whereabouts of the detainees, removing them for the protection of the law.

This number rises to more than 20 according to more expansive interpretation of the prohibition of enforced disappearance.

In at least 27 post election cases, the Mission documented situations that could constitute enforced disappearance.

In these cases, detainees were unable to communicate with their family members and lawyers.

The authorities did not acknowledge their detention, and they did not appear the judicial control hearing Within the 48.

48 hour period established by the law.

Acts of torture, cruel and human or degrading treatment also continued.

The mission identified a range of torture methods used by security forces or intelligence services, including punching beatings with wooden planks or bats wrapped in foam, electric shocks, fixation with plastic bags, immersation called water, enforced sleep deprivation.

The mission continued to record sexual and gender based violence, especially in detention centres, which increased after the post electoral crisis.

The mission documented roping of breasts, buttocks and genitals, forced nudity, invasive searches, sexist threats and insults, and denial of sexual and reproductive rights against some of the more than 200 women and girls detained, as well as women visiting loved loved ones in detention centres.

The Mission recorded numerous allegations about critical convictions of detention in the main centres where authorities detained persons in the aftermath of the protests, such as the Tokoron and Tokoito prisons for men and La Crisalida for women.

Both before and after the elections.

The Mission identified serious and systematic violations of due process of detainees, for example, the detestions that were frozen.

There was no judicial order that represents they were unjustified delays in the presentation of detained persons before supervisory justice for the legally established 48 hours, the possibility of having a defence of 1's own choice, the conduct of hearings at night in the same detention centres or disproportionate accusations without factual basis that implies sentences up to 30 years in prison.

Mr.

President, the violations described above took place within the framework of increasingly shrinking civic and democratic space.

On August 15, National Assembly United still proved the known law on NGOs, despite recommendations of the country from the missions as well as from the Office of the **** Commissioner and the Inter American Commission on Human Rights.

The approved text is incompatible with international norms and standards on the right to freedom of association and further restricts the ability of civil society organisations, including human rights organisations, to act freely.

The National Assembly also advanced in the process of approving the draught law against fascism, Neo fascism and similar expressions under a broad and ambiguous definition.

Definition of fascism and neo fascism that will criminalises legitimate ideological expressions.

Mr.

President, the situation in the Bahrain Republic of Venezuela, especially since 28 July, has become one of the most acute human right crises in the country's recent history.

Serious human rights violations and crimes continue to be committed as we present our our report to this Council.

Hundreds of people, including children, continue to be detained in unacceptable conditions, increasing their risk of being subjected to torture and I'll treatment, including sexual or gender based violence.

Politically motivated persecution continues.

The international community faces a great responsibility to stop this persecution, to ensure that violations and crimes that have been committed and continue to be committed do not go unpunished, and to encourage the victims by ensuring that they can obtain justice.

Thank you very much for your attention.

I thank you, Madam, for presenting the report of the EFFM on Venezuela and according to our practise, we shall start by hearing the delegation of the country.

Consent.

Mr Ambassador of Venezuela, I give you the floor for 5 minutes.

Thank you President.

We have just heard the reading out of a ridiculous pamphlet by the illegitimate body created by the Lima Group, basically going along with Washington's orders.

Years after the irregular imposition, this council is still listening to this politicised things.

I think it's just testimony to the erratic working of this body of the UN.

They Western countries are turning council into a body that is simply blackmailing Southern countries, wanting to impose on the UN the narrative of fascism.

And this is really a shameless mission, I have to say, and I'm careful with what I say.

As of which it simply invents things, people who are faceless, they're not identified.

The people, the report itself is as far as it is really done deliberately as well.

And I think that is something that strikes council.

We have to ****** it.

If not, we are simply hampering forever this body, this council.

Look at what's happening in Palestine, what's happening with the with the blessing of the US and the EU, the sovereign state of Venezuela has been systematically attacked.

Every single time we've said that.

And looking at the UN red tape, we see that there is an absolute dead set on attacking our president.

We've seen that there is a real attempt to invade our territory.

This all promoted by the US and we've seen that with people that our state security have captured and imprisoned.

All this is swept under the carpet because of the hypocrisy of this system.

And all you seem to be concerned about is who the people are, that they carry out the mandate that's been imposed on them.

This means that victims are actually everything is wrong.

The victims become those who perpetrate the crimes.

It's upside down, President.

A new pandemic effects humanity.

That new pandemic is called fascism.

This is something that we are seeing flourishing under the aegis of the US and the EU.

It seems like they want to clamp down on the emerging of a new multi polar reality.

We have to condemn this dangerous reality.

We have to fight back against it.

We cannot permit this complicit these, this fascism that is starting to prevail.

It violates the rights of people who are upholding democratic institutions.

We have to rectify things, get back on course so that we actually uphold the principles behind the creation of this council.

We had a successful electoral process.

President Maduro was elected with over 50%.

But the fascist right in Venezuela has sparked a wave of violence, simply pushing to one side the outcome of those elections, including criminals.

And you've got to look at what we've done in these weren't peaceful proposals and peaceful demonstrations that we say On the contrary.

And in fact, this was something OHCHR in a flagrant fashion has shown.

It is also acting in as accomplice here, and we want to denounce that as well.

27 Venezuelans have been murdered in Venezuela, paid by the extreme right in Venezuela.

Victims are community leaders.

They're poor people.

And of course, you just ignore them in the human rights system because you want to ignore that because they're poor.

This double standards needs to be rejected.

There has to be balanced approach from this council.

There cannot be aggression and attacks on the sovereignty of people.

We have to stop this irrational politicisation that we are seeing which is riding Russian over human rights.

We have got the most robust protective system in Venezuela.

We're proud of it and the sanctions are aiming to destroy that, again, riding Russia over the rights, the US, the EU, what they're doing are actually involved in crimes against humanity.

President Maduro, as along prior to him.

President Maduro is doing all they can and we are moving along this path to victory, as they both said.

HRC57 - Human Rights in Venezuela - 20 September 2024