MADURO GOV'T ACCUSED OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

GENEVA The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has committed systematic human rights violations including killings and torture amounting to crimes against humanity, United Nations’ investigators said on Wednesday.

Reasonable grounds existed to believe that Maduro and his interior and defence ministers ordered or contributed to the crimes documented in the report in order to silence opposition, they said.

Specifically they had information indicating that Maduro ordered the director of the national intelligence service SEBIN to detain opponents “without judicial order,” Francisco Cox of the UN Fact-Finding Mission said.

Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not respond to a request to comment on the report, which was based on more than 270 interviews with victims, witnesses, former officials and lawyers, and confidential documents.

Most unlawful executions by security forces and state agents have not been prosecuted in Venezuela, where the rule of law and democratic institutions have broken down, the panel said.

The investigators said other national jurisdictions and the International Criminal Court, which opened a preliminary examination into Venezuela in 2018, should consider prosecutions.

More than 5 million people — one sixth of the population — have fled the country’s political, economic and humanitarian crisis. Canada, the U.S. and dozens of other countries, recognize opposition politician Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate interim leader.

Reuters