The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a scathing report on Friday detailing the human rights abuses committed by the socialist Bolivarian regime in Venezuela — a country that also sits on the OHCHR.
The 63-page report details cases of “extrajudicial and protest-related killings, excessive force used in regular security operations, arbitrary detentions with no due process, and torture and ill-treatment of detained people.” Since the Bolivarian regime did not let the OHCHR investigate these claims directly, the council had to rely on witness and survivor interviews as well as remote monitoring.
The regime’s main targets seem to be activists and people speaking out against the government and the horrid conditions inside the country. According to Reuters, about 125 Venezuelans died last year while protesting the Bolivarian regime.
“The information gathered by OHCHR indicates that human rights violations committed during demonstrations form part of a wider pattern of repression against political dissidents and anyone perceived as opposed, or posing a threat, to the Government,” the report says.
Despite the number of abuses being reported, Venezuelan government forces are not being held accountable for these atrocities, the report also notes.
“State authorities have failed to act with due diligence to promptly and effectively investigate the excessive use of force and the killings of protestors by security forces, punish the alleged perpetrators, and establish chain of command responsibilities of senior authorities, in violation of victims’ and families’ rights to truth and justice,” the OHCHR said in the report.
The Human Rights Council investigators also found that many of the relatives of victims have “lost trust” in the Venezuelan criminal justice system.
The OHCHR has recommended 30 actions to the Bolivarian regime in order to regain accountability. They include “ceasing the practice of using excessive force, re-establish units to independently investigate excessive force allegations and extrajudicial killings, halt arbitrary detentions, condemn torture and independently investigate cases of alleged torture.”
The most significant recommendation to the Venezuelan government is to allow OCHCR access to the country in order to complete a more thorough report. Without it, the OCHCR fears the situation inside Venezuelan will only get worse.