Complaints about state violence in Venezuela continue. United Nations Mission in the country, which the organization is barred from entering, warned this week of a significant increase in attacks against the population since July 28, the date of the general elections. Although the final report will be published on Thursday before the United Nations Human Rights CouncilThe organization has put forward some of its conclusions.
It was the Portuguese Marta Valiñas, president of the Missionthe one in charge of handing over certain keys. “We are faced with a systematic, coordinated and deliberate repression by the Venezuelan government, which is responding with a conscious plan to silence any form of dissent,” he said at a news conference.
Reported violence techniques include punching, beatings with wooden boards or sticks wrapped in foam, suffocation with plastic bagselectric shocks included in the genitals, touch women and the obligation to undress in public.
Members of the United Nations mission in Venezuela; Roberto Cox, Marta Valiñas and Patricia Tappatá.
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The group, also composed of Chilean lawyer, Robert Coxand the Argentine human rights specialist, Patricia Tappataremotely interviewed about a hundred people, residents of Venezuela or exiles. The conclusions are lapidary: the dictatorship is trying to dismantle the opposition, eliminate independent information and stop by force any attempt at civil protest.
According to the members of the Mission, this is the worst crisis that Venezuela is going through in its recent history. For Valiñas, however, this is only “the continuation of previous patterns.” He maintains that what has happened in recent weeks “due to its intensity and systematic nature, represents a very serious attack on the fundamental rights of the Venezuelan people.” In July alone, in the middle of the campaign, more than 120 people were arrested. The number has increased to more than 2,000 after the elections.
Among those detained, many are minors and some of them suffer from some type of disability. According to the UN envoys, it had already been warned that the government of Nicolas Maduro would activate its repressive apparatus.
Although the document is not bindingThe findings gathered by the UN are expected to serve as pressure on a regime that seems impenetrable in the face of the countless complaints that have been filed against it.
In a conversation with EL ESPAÑOL, Cox spoke about other benefits offered by the work in progress. “Our reports will serve as a basis for the decision of the prosecutor’s office International Criminal Court (ICC) to open an investigation against Venezuela.” In addition, he said, it will be a new “contribution to the investigations carried out in Argentina in the exercise of universal jurisdiction.”
Operation “Tun Tun” and deaths
Investigations maintain that the state attacks were indiscriminate and targeted to young people from the most popular neighborhoodsThe same segment that historically supported Chavismo is now in the doldrums.
From the 25 victims24 died from one or more gunshot wounds. Mostly in the neck. The majority, in under 25 years old. At least the dead are added. 158 children detained that they did not receive a fair judicial process. In fact, in most cases, there is no evidence against them.
‘Terrorism’. “Incitement to hatred.” This is how the Maduro government achieves it and sends its agents to violate citizens’ rights and punish the opposition. They are not just faces of institutional politics or prominent activists. They are, above all, ordinary people who are afraid to even go to work.
‘Tun Tun, who is it?/ people of peace! Open the door for us, it’s already Christmas! Let the commissioner come, let him come and find out if they are people of peace or if they want to bother us. This is how the Chavista song begins, based on an old Christmas carol, which motivates hundreds of police officers and soldiers to break into homes and arrest them without impunity.
This is a veritable raid that claims new victims every day. An armed official arrives at an unexpected moment and harasses anyone who criticizes the official version. Sometimes the operation consists of confiscating a mobile phone. Others consist of detaining the minor without explaining to the family where they are going to take him.
Although the group’s work ends at the end of September, the work could continue for a few more months, Cox assures EL ESPAÑOL.The Council may renew its mandate“If this happens, the structures and individuals responsible for these serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity will continue to be investigated.”
For Maduro and his closest collaborators, of course, everything they are accused of is the work of a “far right’ who operates from abroad and is behind what he calls “sabotage of the electoral system.”
