For negotiators, however, the allegations have been used politically in recent years to weaken Maduro and ultimately delegitimize his government. According to diplomats, such an operation does not promote a negotiated solution to the political crisis that the country is going through.
However, according to the inspectors, the human rights situation has not improved. “Serious human rights violations continue to occur in Venezuela,” said Marta Valiñas, president of the mission. “In recent years, these incidents have increasingly targeted certain members of civil society, including trade union leaders, journalists and human rights defenders,” he said.
“Repressive mechanisms remain in place, making international monitoring of human rights in Venezuela more important than ever,” he emphasized.
The political and human rights crisis in Venezuela underwent a reversal in late 2020 and early 2021, marked by the disruption of mass opposition protests and riots and uprisings. In previous periods, “harsh” repressive tactics were used to silence opposition voices through the commission of crimes, as extensively documented by the Mission.
The report now warns that “the repressive structures of the state have not been dismantled and the government has recently increased its efforts to restrict civil and democratic space, limit individual and collective freedoms and increase controls and restrictions on the work of human rights defenders “civil society organizations, trade unions, media and political parties”.
According to the message:
The state uses constant threats, surveillance and harassment, as well as defamation and censorship to silence, discourage and suppress any real or perceived opposition.