UN rights chief decries Venezuela crackdown
Bachelet, addressing the UNHCR, also voiced concern that the latest US sanctions on financial transfers linked to the sale of oil ‘may contribute to aggravating the economic crisis’
Venezuelan security forces, backed by progovernment militias, have quashed peaceful protests with excessive use of force, killings and torture, the United Nations human rights chief said on Wednesday.
Michelle Bachelet, addressing the Human Rights Council, cited allegations that the National Police’s Special Actions Force (FAES) had executed 37 people in January in Caracas in illegal house raids in poor areas supporting the opposition.
However, the latest US sanctions on financial transfers linked to the sale of Venezuelan oil in the United States “may contribute to aggravating the economic crisis,” said Bachelet, a former president of Chile.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his administration had held in reserve what he called “the toughest of sanctions” to try to cut off revenues to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
In January, Trump imposed sanctions on state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela PDVSA, the stiffest economic measure against Maduro and Venezuela to date. The United States is among countries that have recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate head of state. Maduro, a socialist who says he is the victim of an atempted Us-led coup, retains the support of the armed forces and control of state functions.
Venezuelan authorities had failed to acknowledge the extent and severity of the health and food crisis that has driven more than 3 million people to flee abroad since 2015, and had adopted “insufficient” measures, Bachelet said.
She voiced concern at “increasing restrictions on freedom of expression and of the press,” saying Venezuelan authorities had prosecuted journalists, opposition leaders and critics unfairly.
“Divisions are exacerbating an already critical situation,” she said, calling for a political solution.
Venezuelan authorities had failed to acknowledge the extent and severity of the health and food crisis that has driven more than 3 million Venezuelans to flee abroad and they had adopted “insufficient” measures, she told the Geneva forum.
Members of the Venezuelan armed forces that abandon Maduro will keep their rank and be reinstated once a new government is in place, the opposition-controlled legislature said on Tuesday.
The announcement marked the latest offer from the National Assembly, headed by Guaido, to try to convince more military personnel to switch sides.
Guaido, recognised by more than 50 countries as acting president, launched a challenge to socialist Maduro’s authority in January.
But Maduro retains the backing of the powerful armed forces’ high command and the opposition knows it cannot force him from power without military support.
A text approved by the National Assembly said it “guarantees that every military professional citizen who decides to restore constitutional order will be reincorporated into the armed forces” once a new government assumes power.
The assembly said this would preserve the chain of command -- in a bid to assuage any fears the high command may have that they would lose their power and influence should Maduro fall.
Guaido had previously offered amnesty to any members of the armed forces that disavow Maduro.
While dozens of soldiers have abandoned their posts, as of yet none of the high command have pledged their allegiance to Guaido.
Guaido is atempting to remove Maduro from power and set up a transitional government ahead of new elections.
The opposition dispute Maduro’s re-election last May in polls widely dismissed as neither free nor fair.
Venezuela is suffering from an economic crisis following more than four years of recession marked by hyperinflation and shortages of basic necessities such as food and medicines.
Venezuelan doctors have come under pressure from Maduro’s government for trying to alert a visiting UN mission about the severe lack of hospital medicine and equipment, NGOS say.
Venezuelan authorities say that US sanctions freezing $30 billion in assets have blocked imports of basic items including medicine.
But they have roughly stomped down on dissenting voices saying much of the resulting medical emergency is the fault of mismanagement, the NGOS allege.
“They forcibly booted out the head of a medical school in Maracay (west of Caracas) and since then we haven’t heard from her,” said Jaime Lorenzo, executive director of one association called Medicos Unidos (Doctors United).