Venezuelan leaders implicated in crimes against humanity

United Nations GENEVA — investigators Wednesday implicated President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and other high-ranking officials in systematic human rights abuses amounting to crimes against humanity— including killings, torture and sexual violence and called

— for criminal investigations to determine the extent of their involvement.

A three-member panel appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council said it “had reasonable grounds to believe” that Maduro, the interior minister, the defense minister, and the directors of Venezuela’s security and intelligence services “ordered or contributed to” the arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and torture of critics and extrajudicial killings. The panel said they also failed to prevent abuses although they had the powers to do so.

The 411-page report listed about 3,000 cases and focused on events since 2014, when opposition to Maduro’s government gathered force and authorities resorted to increasingly brutal tactics to stay in power.

Government critics and their relatives and friends were targeted to silence opposition to Maduro, the panel said. Security services also arbitrarily killed people as part of a crackdown on crime aimed at winning popularity before National Assembly elections.

“Far from being isolated acts, these crimes were coordinated and committed pursuant to state policies, with the knowledge or direct support of commanding officers and senior government officials,” Marta Valiñas, a Portuguese jurist who chaired the panel, said in a statement.

The investigators said the information they received showed that Maduro and the various ministers of the interior and defense over the period examined were aware of the crimes and “gave orders, coordinated activities, and supplied resources in furtherance of the plans and policies set out in the report.”