Caracas
U.N. accuses Maduro: The government of President Nicolás Maduro may have committed crimes against humanity, the U.N. human rights chief said this week. Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said Venezuela was rounding up protesters and opposition leaders with excessive force, and sometimes killing them. Detainees, including children, were subjected to “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” that in some cases rose to the level of torture. The International Commission of Jurists also said this week that Venezuela’s Supreme Court had utterly dismantled the rule of law. “We have seen a judiciary that has essentially lost its independence and become a tool of a very authoritarian executive branch,” said ICJ Secretary-General Sam Zarifi.