The most recent report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) ratifies the persecution patterns against dissidence in Venezuela and the use of the justice system for violating their rights. She ratifies that torture and cruel, inhuman or demeaning treatments are constant in the country along with the persistence of forced disappearances and isolated detentions. When a detainee dares to denounce the tortures to which they’ve been subjected before court, the judges return them to the custody of those who are responsible for the aggressions.
Apprehensions without arrest warrants or flagrancy are still a pattern. Also the imposition of a public defense; this is why detainees can’t be assisted by an attorney they can trust. The victims can be kept in detention for months without being presented before court. The repeated use of military courts and “terrorism” accusations were also documented, in which the judicial processes are performed in an “express” or “expedited” manner and under complete secrecy. Civil trials under military jurisdiction are repeated in spite of being prohibited by the Constitution.
It’s not by chance that the two main topics of this report have been the justice situation and the Rule of Law, as well as the threats against civic space. Authorities have increased attacks against activists in these last few days, being the most serious case the detention of 3 members of the NGO Fundaredes, who have been linked to scandalous situations in an attempt of undermining the legitimacy of the human rights movement. This happened during the visit of a European Union delegation to the country. In our case, the international community has an important task to fulfill in containing authoritarianism.
In the context of the current crisis in Venezuela, human rights organizations maintain a continuous effort to record and document the systematic violations of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the population in order to accompany the victims and give visibility to these violations before the national and international community.
In this sense, the Crisis in Venezuela bulletin emerges as a weekly space in which, as a human rights movement, we bring together the situations that currently reflect the humanitarian crisis that Venezuela is going through.
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