Rights group: Maduro uses virus as cover

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan security forces and authorities under President Nicolás Maduro have used the coronavirus as an excuse to crack down on dissenting voices on social media and even in private messages, Human Rights Watch reported Friday.

The New York-based rights group said Venezuelan authorities have targeted dozens of journalists, health care workers, rights lawyers and political opponents critical of the government’s response to the pandemic.

Some critics have been physically abused to levels bordering on torture, the group said in a report listing 162 such cases from March through June. Human Rights Watch said it verified several complaints through interviews with alleged victims, while also citing reports by Venezuelan media and human rights advocates.

“In Venezuela today, you can’t even share a private message criticizing the Maduro government via WhatsApp without fear of being prosecuted,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.

“The state of emergency has emboldened security forces and armed pro-government groups that already have a record of torture and extrajudicial killings to crack down even more harshly on Venezuelans,” Vivanco said.

Venezuela’s Ministry of Communications did not respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment. Authorities loyal to Maduro often dismiss critics of its rights record as outside interests led by the United States interfering in the nation’s internal affairs.

Venezuela was in an economic and political crisis before the pandemic. Maduro has come under international pressure to step down since early 2019, when U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó mounted a challenge, arguing the socialist leader illegitimately clings to power after a fraudulent election.

Maduro’s government instituted emergency measures in mid-March shortly after Venezuela’s first coronavirus cases were diagnosed, closing many businesses, limiting travel inside the country and grounding commercial air travel.

Officials so far have reported roughly 350 coronavirus deaths and 42,000 illnesses, but medical workers and government critics say that is an undercount because of the lack of testing.

Human Rights Watch said Maduro’s government often evokes an “overly broad” anti-hate law approved in 2017 as an instrument for its crackdown.