• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

Rule of Law in Venezuela ‘Eroded’: UN Rights Chief

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
07/05/19
in Featured, World
Protester holding up the flag from Venezuela

Protester holding up the Venezuelan flag. Photo: AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The rule of law has eroded in Venezuela, the U.N. rights chief warned Friday, pointing to attacks on political opponents and activists, including torture and thousands of killings by security forces.

Presenting a damning report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Michelle Bachelet said that attempting to exercise the most basic rights like freedom of opinion, expression, association, and assembly “entails a risk of reprisals and repression.”

“Essential institutions and the rule of law in Venezuela have been eroded,” she said.

She decried attacks against “actual or perceived political opponents and human rights defenders ranging from threats and smear campaigns to arbitrary detention, torture, ill-treatment, sexual violence, killings and enforced disappearance.”

Venezuela immediately slammed the report, which was published late Thursday and followed a visit by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to the troubled South American country last month.

The report “is dominated by a selective and partial vision,” William Castillo, Venezuela’s deputy foreign minister, told the council, demanding a “correction.”


 ‘Shockingly High’ 

The report indicated that nearly 7,000 people have been killed during security operations in Venezuela in the past year and a half, according to a count by Caracas, and warned that many of the killings likely constituted “executions.”

The U.N. rights office described the incidence of alleged extrajudicial killings by security forces in the country as “shockingly high.”

Nicolás Maduro’s government in Venezuela can't hide the massive & systematic human rights violations that have been committed under his command, seriously affecting most people in the country & forcing millions to flee in search of protection. https://t.co/wguEUVX3H9

— Amnesty International (@amnesty) July 5, 2019

Bachelet stressed to the council Friday that the possible “extrajudicial killings … should be fully investigated with accountability of perpetrators, and guarantees of non-recurrence.”

In her report, she especially pointed a finger at Venezuela’s police special forces (FAES), and urged the authorities to “dissolve” the unit.

Castillo meanwhile said that Caracas “categorically rejects the criminalization of the security forces and the armed forces.”

He also lamented that Bachelet had ignored the “serious risks” facing Venezuela, pointing to “coup plans” and the threat of “foreign intervention” from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Venezuela is caught in an economic crisis and a political standoff between President Nicolas Maduro’s government and National Assembly leader Juan Guaido.

The opposition leader, Guaido, declared himself interim president earlier this year, and has been recognized by the United States and more than 50 other countries.

The oil-rich nation is also suffering from hyperinflation and shortages of basic goods from food to medicine, a crisis that has forced millions to flee.

The U.N. estimates that more than seven million Venezuelans are in need of urgent humanitarian aid.


Sanctions ‘Exacerbating’ Crisis 

Bachelet said “there are reasonable grounds to believe that grave violations of economic and social rights, including the rights to food and health, have been committed in Venezuela.”

She added that social programs had been used “as an instrument of social control.”

The U.N. rights chief also said the U.S. oil embargo and other sanctions imposed on Venezuela were taking a harsh toll, further exacerbating “the effects of the economic crisis, and thus the humanitarian situation.”

She warned that the punitive measures appeared to be “affecting the state’s ability to provide basic health service to the populations.”

Despite her criticism of Caracas, Bachelet refrained from calling for an international investigation into the violations in the country, and said she wanted to give the government the opportunity to carry out reforms without setting a “deadline.”

She hailed increased cooperation from Venezuelan authorities, who granted her broad access during her recent visit and has agreed to a permanent presence by U.N. rights officers in the country.

She especially welcomed the release of 62 detainees around the time of her visit, and 22 more this Thursday, including the journalist Braulio Jatar and the judge Lourdes Afiuni.

The U.N., she said, “encourages the authorities to release all others detained for the exercise of their human rights.”


More on the Subject 

Venezuelan Politician Faces Trial for Drone ‘Hit’ Attempt on Maduro

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Donald Trump
National

US Supreme Court Freezes Release of Trump Tax Returns

by Staff Writer
November 1, 2022
Donald Trump
National

US Capitol Riot Probe Votes to Subpoena Trump to Testify

by Staff Writer
October 13, 2022
Steve Bannon
National

Former Trump Advisor Bannon Charged With Fraud in New York

by Staff Writer
September 8, 2022
US President Donald Trump
Opinion

Donald Trump Thanks You for Your Sacrifice

by Stephen J. Lyons
August 17, 2022
Mar-A-Lago raid
National

FBI Raid on Trump’s Home Ignites Political Firestorm

by Staff Writer
August 9, 2022
US President Donald Trump
Opinion

Owning the Words and the Libs

by Stephen J. Lyons
June 16, 2022
Next Post
A Syrian refugee holds a baby in a refugee camp set in the town of Harmanli, south-east of Sofia

HRW Condemns 'Pressure' on Syrian Refugees to Leave Lebanon

Despite Rain, Trump Celebrates Fourth of July With Militaristic Rally

Despite Rain, Trump Celebrates Fourth of July With Militaristic Rally

Recommended

A supporter of nurses' strike and NHS holds a placard

UK Faces Fresh Mass Strikes as Wage Talks Derail

February 1, 2023
Israeli security forces in Jerusalem

Palestinian Gunman Kills 7 in East Jerusalem Synagogue Attack

January 30, 2023
The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds to midnight, a decision made by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, during an announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on January 23, 2020

‘Doomsday Clock’ Moves Closest Ever to Midnight

January 25, 2023
Police work near the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California

California Lunar New Year Mass Shooter Dead, Motive Unclear: Police

January 23, 2023
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Race on To Replace Ardern as New Zealand Prime Minister

January 20, 2023
Pfizer logo and vaccines

Pfizer to Sell More Drugs at Cost to Poor Nations

January 18, 2023

Opinion

George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Commuters waiting for buses in Metro Manila. Philippines

Eight Billion and Counting…

November 29, 2022
Mahsa Amini protests

Imagining a Free Iran

October 24, 2022
Vladimir Putin

How 18th Century International Law Clarifies the Situation in Ukraine

September 29, 2022
Vladimir Putin

Falling for Putin

September 15, 2022
US President Donald Trump

Donald Trump Thanks You for Your Sacrifice

August 17, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post