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Of: TT
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Photo: Rodrigo Abd / AP / TT
Venezuelan elite police force Faes, designated by the UN as responsible for extrajudicial executions, during an operation in the capital Caracas. Stock Photography.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his government have committed what is likely to be a crime against humanity, including extrajudicial executions and the systematic use of torture. This is stated by the UN Human Rights Council (OHCHR) in a new report.
The report goes through 2,500 incidents since 2014 in which more than 5,000 Venezuelans were killed by the country’s security forces.
“These are not isolated events, on the contrary, these crimes have been coordinated and committed in accordance with state directives, with the direct knowledge or support of officials or senior government officials,” the authors write.
In normal cases, OHCHR visits the countries on which the audit is focused. However, since the UN agency was unable to enter Venezuela, its staff have had to rely on interviews with victims and witnesses who have been able to leave the country.
The authors recommend that Venezuela investigate the crimes, but also note that there has been “an erosion of the independence of the judicial system” and thus suggest that the International Criminal Court in The Hague should consider prosecuting the accused.
The best known of these nominees is Maduro himself. According to the UN agency, there are “probable reasons to believe” that the president “ordered or contributed to the execution of the documented crimes.”
The Venezuelan government does not beat around the bush about the OHCHR accusations.
“A report full of inaccuracies, prepared remotely without any methodological consequences by a phantom commission directed at Venezuela and controlled by the governments of Washington,” Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza thundered on Twitter.
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