More than 90 NGOs called on Nicolás Maduro to end the crackdown on civil society in Venezuela

More than 90 non-governmental organizations have united their voices to denounce “authoritarianism” in Venezuela and demand an end to the “repression” of civil society, since they denounced that the attacks “become more and more commonAnd they fear the situation will worsen with the new law to register organizations.

The law introduces a concept of “beneficiaries” which opens the door to the obligation to reveal the identity of victims and communities, “a clear effort to monitor and limit the work of independent civil society organizations”In the opinion of the signatory NGOs, notably Human Rights Watch and other movements, mainly from Latin America.

“This regulation is the most recent of a series of actions implemented to restrict and intimidate organizations “potentially criminalize” ugly.

To this fear is added a proposal from the Committee on Foreign Policy, Sovereignty and Integration of the National Assembly controlled by the Chavismo of a ‘International cooperation law‘, since they anticipate “even more restrictions“When it comes to accessing funds from abroad, as was the case with another rule laid down in 2015.

The UN human rights office denounced in February “at least 66 cases of intimidation, harassment, disqualification and criminalization of journalists, media, human rights defenders, aid workers, union leaders and members or supporters of the opposition»Since September 2020.

The organizations that signed the letter, on the one hand, asked the Venezuelan authorities to “comply with their international legal obligations and immediately end repression and harassment against independent civil society ”and, on the other hand, they appealed to the international community so that“actively support civil society organizations, Human rights defenders, aid workers and other activists in Venezuela, to ensure that their continued persecution is not met with indifference ”.

“Venezuela urgently needs a peaceful and democratic solution to the political, humanitarian and human rights crisis it faces. Such a solution will not be possible without an independent and active civil society to promote it, ”they noted.

(With information from Europa Press)

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