Amnesty International has denounced more extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions and cases of torture in Venezuela

There are more and more reports from different international organizations denouncing the abuses committed by the Nicolás Maduro dictatorship in Venezuela. This Tuesday Amnesty International (AI) published its annual study on the state of human rights in the world, in which it denounced new cases of extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention and torture in this Caribbean country.

“In the persistent human rights crisis that Venezuela has suffered, they have received a new information on extrajudicial killings, excessive use of force and unlawful killings by the security forces “, says the report, which also includes new reports of “torture and other ill-treatment and enforced disappearance of persons arbitrarily detained”.

In this sense, the international organization noted that “arbitrary detention continued to be part of the policy of repression against dissent”. According to data from Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal, as of October last year, 413 politically motivated arrests were reported, up from 320 in April. AI said this type of apprehension increased after the state of alarm for the coronavirus pandemic was declared.

“In addition to political activists, 12 medical professionals who publicly criticized the government’s response to the pandemic faced brief arrests and, subsequently, restrictions. The COVID-19 pandemic has been used to restrict notification of arrests, so families of detainees have been forced to depend on unofficial information on their whereabouts, ”said the human rights NGO.

In turn, he blamed the security forces of the Chavist regime for the extrajudicial killings, including the Special Action Forces (FAES) of the Bolivarian National Police and the Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigations Corps (CICPC). He also recalled that, according to a report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights last year, at least 2,000 deaths were recorded in the Caribbean country during operations carried out by the forces. security of the dictatorship.

Another repressive practice that Maduro’s regime has continued over the past year has been enforced disappearance. Those detained for political reasons have been subjected to long periods of incommunicado detention, as in the case of Congressmen Renzo Prieto and Gilber Caro.

“Reports continued to come in about the use of torture to obtain confessions or incriminating statements. OHCHR has documented 16 cases in which the use of methods such as beatings, electric shocks, suffocation and sexual violence. Amnesty International adds in the report.

The international organization also questioned the fact that the Chavist authorities “had not investigated complaints of torture and other ill-treatment”. On the contrary, they “went unpunished”.

According to AI, impunity in the various cases of human rights violations and crimes under international law “continues to be the norm”: “OHCHR published a report in July on the independence of justice and access to justice in which it was concluded that victims of human rights violations could not access justice due to structural obstacles, in particular the lack of independence of the judiciary “.

Added to this backdrop of political violence is the lack of medical assistance during the pandemic, low wages, high food prices and the deep shortage of basic commodities. This combination led to more than 9,000 protests against Maduro’s dictatorship last year, according to data from the NGO Observatorio Venezolano de Conflictividad Social.

More than 400 of these protests have been suppressed by the police, army and paramilitary groups operating on behalf of the regime.

In its report released on Tuesday, Amnesty International said there was also a setback in terms of freedom of expression in Venezuela. “According to civil society organization Espacio Público, between January and August there were more than 747 attacks against the press and journalists, including acts of intimidation, digital attacks, censorship, arbitrary detentions and physical attacks ”.

Last August, journalists Andrés Eloy Nieves Zacarías and Victor Torres They were murdered during a FAES operation in Zulia State. Another case mentioned by AI is that of Darvinson rojas, a journalist who was arbitrarily detained by regime forces for disseminating information about the coronavirus situation in the country.

“Mandatory quarantine in state custody was an example of the repressive response to COVID-19,” the report warns. In this sense, he warns about the centers set up by the dictatorship, known under the name of PASI (Comprehensive Social Care Point), where there were more than 90,000 Venezuelans returned to the country to comply with the mandatory quarantine.

“These centers followed arbitrary and militarized procedures which led to punitive and repressive measures, and did not prioritize medical care and prevention of contagion. The conditions of PASI were precarious and, in many cases, did not comply with World Health Organization protocols. There was reports that the centers, for example, lacked clean water, adequate food and access to medical care.

Regarding the management of the pandemic, Amnesty International said that the regime’s response had been severely affected by the lack of access to adequate health services: “The medical and health personnel did not have protective equipment. personal protection or adequate protective measures against COVID-19. Many people who have expressed concern about this issue have been arrested and criminalized ”.

The NGO recognizes that there is also a great concern “Due to the lack of transparency on the part of the authorities regarding the performance of diagnostic tests, infection rates and deaths from COVID-19.”

This situation has exacerbated the already worrying humanitarian emergency that Venezuela is going through: “The prevailing conditions – such as the constant shortage of basic services (water, electricity and fuel, among others), poor health infrastructure and the difficulty of access to medicines and food – these have been made worse by COVID-19 and have seriously hampered the ability of the population to comply with containment measures imposed to stop the pandemic. “

KEEP READING: