UN Report finds Maduro Government Complicit in Crimes Against Humanity

Nicolás Maduro, whose administration was recently accused of Crimes Against Humanity by the United Nations (Wikimedia Commons)

The UN Human Rights Council’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela has accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and other high-level officials in the Venezuelan government of directly coordinating state violence. The allegations include killings, torture, and disappearances, seemingly with the goal of eradicating opposition to Maduro's government and perpetuating fear in the general public.

Maduro assumed the presidency in April 2013, shortly after the death of former president Hugo Chávez in March 2013. According to the UNHRC report, opposition movements including “La Salida” (“the Exit”) began to arise in early 2014, less than a year after Maduro assumed office. Such movements, mobilized due to the worsening economic situation in Venezuela, were aimed at removing Maduro from the presidency. 

Although investigators from the fact-finding mission were barred from entering Venezuela, the report finds that this state violence taken place since 2014. The report also finds that following Maduro’s heavily contested reelection in 2018, Venezuelans protesting against the election results were met with further repression.

According to Marta Valiñas, the chairperson of this fact-finding mission, "these crimes were coordinated and committed pursuant to state policies, with the knowledge or direct support of commanding officers and senior government officials."

Valiñas also found that “most of the victims were young men, who were targeted due to the real or perceived involvement in criminal activities.”

A majority of the violations, 59 percent, were carried out by two security forces in Venezuela: the Special Actions Forces (FAES), a branch of the National Bolivarian Police (Venezuela’s national police force), and the Scientific, Penal, and Criminal Investigation Service Corps (CICPC). The report also has a list of 45 names that could be implicated in association with these crimes.

The fact-finding mission’s report on Venezuela is expected to be introduced to the UN Human Rights Council on September 23. The proceedings of this session could prove to undermine Venezuela’s place in the international community, given its already tumultuous relations with countries who have not recognized Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela since the 2018 election.