The similarities between Augusto Pinochet and Nicolás Maduro in the denial of UN investigations into human rights violations

Nicolas maduro He appeared again on Monday in an international organization, in a new attempt to legitimize the Chavist regime, although its presentation to the UN Human Rights Council drew similarities with the arguments put forward by former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

A fact-finding mission promoted by the United Nations High Commissioner has previously corroborated serious human rights violations in Venezuela, including events that may represent crimes against humanity and in which senior government officials have been complicit.

And in 1975, during the Pinochet dictatorship, the The United Nations General Assembly issued a declaration in which it recognized the existence of the institutionalized practice of torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention in ChileFor this reason, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Chile was established, which then extensively documented these systematic and widespread violations of human rights.

Pinochet, furious at the declaration of the UN plenary, sent by national channel a message to deny all these alleged inventions. “I am doing this because a recent General Assembly resolution attempted to undermine that dignity, accusing us, without serious merit, of systematically violating human rights,” he said. of the ongoing bloody repression. The text, said the soldier, was “false, contrived, slanderous and deeply unfair”.

Regarding international investigations, Pinochet assured: “Our borders were opened to all those who wanted to visit us, even if it was often obvious that some came to our country only to consolidate an adverse prejudice already adopted. We even allow entry into the country and the free work of various commissions of inquiry, which no legal standard required us to accept ”.

In keeping with the times, Maduro said on Monday that his collaboration with the Human Rights Council remained firm. However, he clarified that rejects “any inquisitorial mechanism that seeks to use the cause of human rights as a political tool”. With a speech similar to that of the Chilean dictator, he indicated that it was “ideological provocations”.

The Chilean repressor also admitted to refusing entry to a working group for “reasons of national dignity and security”. For his part, Maduro has limited the presence of Michelle Bachelet’s team, which has only a handful of observers of the Venezuelan crisis.

Maduro also tends to target the United States, a country which is leading international pressure to force Chavismo out. As highlighted on Monday, Venezuela faces more than 450 sanctions with alleged ideological bias. The enemy, Maduro assures us, is outside: “The kidnappers of the assets and resources of the Venezuelan state have shown great cruelty, even in the event of a pandemic”

Pinochet also made a review gooseberry punitive measures against government figures, although at the time it targeted Washington’s ideological rival during the Cold War. “Our country cannot stop denouncing the lack of moral authority of our accusers. What is undoubtedly shameful is that it is tolerated, with passive indifference, that those who lead the attack against us are the Soviet Union and its satellite countries, whose imperialism it has stained and continues to stain with blood the most diverse areas of the planet ”.

While Maduro looks to external factors to justify the crisis, Pinochet, arguing that there are rights of different hierarchy, defended the restriction of basic powers: “When a community faces an emergency or abnormal situation (…) it may be necessary to temporarily suspend the exercise of certain minor rights in order to safeguard other more fundamental ones ”. All for the greater good. Maduro underlined: “We have made great efforts to guarantee the Venezuelan welfare and welfare state. (The sanctions) threaten the life of the Venezuelan people ”.

And if the Chilean dictator assured that “human rights are the cornerstone and the backbone of Chilean democracy”, Maduro said on Monday that the objective is to guarantee happiness, security and stability: “Let us change the predatory capitalist system of economic organization, it is so much war and misery have generated. Let us be able to create a system of justice and equity ”.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC: