A United Nations fact-finding mission concluded that “there are no indicators of reforms or structural changes” to improve the human rights situation in Venezuela, despite the ouster of its leader in January.
On Thursday, a member of the fact-finding mission, María Eloisa Quintero, delivered remarks (PDF) before the UN Human Rights Council questioning whether Venezuela’s leadership would face accountability for its record of human rights abuses.
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He also pointed to continued abuses under the government of interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who took office on January 5.
“Civic and democratic space remains severely restricted. Civil society organizations, the few remaining independent media outlets, and political actors continue to face attacks, harassment, or intimidation,” Quintero wrote in his statement.
“The prospects of having the full guarantees necessary for free and democratic elections remain remote.”
In total, the fact-finding mission concluded that at least 87 people have been detained since January.
Fourteen of them were journalists who were temporarily detained while covering Rodríguez’s inauguration, and another 27 were allegedly arrested for celebrating the fall of Rodríguez’s predecessor, Nicolás Maduro.
The fact-finding mission revealed that at least 15 of the recent arrests involved children.
A violation of international law
Their report was one of the first international assessments of human rights under Rodríguez’s nascent presidency.
He took office after the United States launched a military operation in the early morning hours of January 3 to kidnap Venezuela’s then-president Maduro. Previously, Rodríguez had served as Maduro’s vice president.
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores currently remain imprisoned in New York, where they face drug trafficking and weapons possession charges.
The United States has supported Rodríguez’s rise to the presidency. Both his administration and that of US President Donald Trump have said there is no immediate plan to hold new elections in Venezuela, citing the need for stability.
Quintero emphasized that the fact-finding mission considered that the US operation “violated international law,” echoing the legal consensus.
“While the Mission has reasonable grounds to believe that Nicolás Maduro is responsible for crimes against humanity committed against the civilian population, this does not justify illegal military intervention,” Quintero wrote.
His comments also noted that while Maduro may be gone, the rest of his government remains.
That government has faced repeated accusations that it perpetrated violence against members of Venezuela’s political opposition and others considered critics of the country’s socialist leadership.
“The legal instruments that have long served as the basis for political persecution remain fully in force,” Quintero said.
“State institutions that played a key role in the repression, and which have been identified in previous Mission reports, have not been reviewed or reformed.”
Human rights groups have compiled thousands of reports of arbitrary detentions, as well as torture and extrajudicial executions, during the government of Maduro, who was president from 2013 until January.
Members of the Venezuelan opposition have also called for the dismissal of the existing government, which they claim fraudulently claimed victory in the 2024 presidential race, despite vote counts indicating otherwise.
Limits to ‘positive’ steps
At first, Quintero said the fact-finding mission found that developments under Rodríguez’s government “initially seemed encouraging.”
He pointed to “positive” measures such as the release of political prisoners and the passage of an amnesty law that would eliminate criminal penalties for dissidents facing certain criminal charges.
But the benefits of those measures, he said, were mitigated by irregularities. The amnesty law was limited in scope (it only addressed certain accusations, made within a specific time period) and the bill never received a full public reading.
Meanwhile, the government has claimed to have released more political prisoners than local human rights groups have actually verified.
Quintero added that the fact-finding mission also found that 30 officials from Venezuela’s Scientific, Criminal and Forensic Investigation Corps (CICPC), part of the national police agency, were detained for failing to present false evidence about the US attack on January 3.
His relatives, he indicated, also faced reprisals from the government. The fact-finding mission called for more changes to be made to address ongoing human rights abuses.
“A much deeper and lasting transformation is required so that the population can trust that the long years of repression and violence have truly come to an end,” Quintero wrote.
Instead, he warned that the existing “machinery” of repression is simply “mutating” to adapt to the new reality in post-Maduro Venezuela.
