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The report includes patterns of human rights violations that occurred before, during and after the election day of July 28th, 2024, with data from more than 25 associative initiatives in the country. The report concludes that the actions of the authorities ratify that in Venezuela the crime of persecution for political reasons, a crime against humanity included in the Rome Statute, continues to be committed; That the coordinated actions of the different institutions of public power, aimed at promoting generalized fear as a mechanism of control and coercion, must be qualified as “State Terrorism”; That the serious erosion of democratic institutionality has repealed, by way of facts, 21. 7% of the articles of the Magna Carta, linked to fundamental rights, for which reason a regime of exception has been established in the country by de facto means. Finally, even if the will of the people had been recognized by the current authorities, the continuous barriers erected in the electoral process, in a generalized and systematic manner, hindering the exercise of the rights of freedom of peaceful assembly and association, would also have prevented the electoral process from being qualified as “free” and “fair”.
Regarding the situations documented and reflected in the report, it is found that before July 28th, during the first months of the year, 25 people were arrested for reporting, 58 websites and portals had been blocked for free access and 98 complaints about violations of freedom of expression were processed. During the first half of the year, 2,383 protests were registered, of which demands for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights accounted for 56%. During the month of July alone, there were 1,311 mobilizations, 90% of which were for the demand of civil and political rights. During the first 7 months of the year, at least 169 people were arbitrarily detained for political reasons, one of the cases being that of the human rights defender Rocío San Miguel. 49 people were reportedly detained for supplying goods and services to Edmundo González Urrutia’s campaign, while 24 establishments were sanctioned for this reason. An emblematic case during this period is the violation of the right to asylum of the 6 refugees at the Argentine embassy in Caracas.
During the July 28th election day, citizen observation organizations registered between 53.8% and 65.9% of incidents in polling centers that delayed the voting process. However, 35% of voters waited less than one hour to vote, while 30.4% waited between one and two hours. In 70% of the polling centers there were proselytizing points, while between 33% and 22% of the centers the use of public resources for the mobilization of voters was observed. Up to 6 pm, the actions of the “Plan República” officials can be described as institutional. However, after that time they received orders from their superiors to prevent the presence of witnesses and citizen verification. Between 44 and 24% of the centers allowed the presence of witnesses in the scrutiny acts. In 30.5% of the centers the delivery of copies of the tally sheets to witnesses was denied. On that day, 20 situations occurred that were detrimental to the right to freedom of expression and information, while at least 86 actions were carried out by groups of armed persons affected to the pro-government party, in 17 different states, with a balance of 8 injured persons of bullet wounds and 1 killed. These attacks suggest not only national coordination, but tolerance on the part of the authorities. The irregularities linked to the dissemination of the supposed results were included in the preliminary reports of the Carter Center and the Panel of Electoral Experts of the United Nations, the two highest entities with technical capacity invited by the authorities to carry out electoral observation during the elections.
After July 28th, the popular mobilization in reaction to the disregard of the popular will was dealt with by the government through a combination of “hard” and “soft” methods, as the United Nations Independent Fact-Finding Mission had diagnosed in a previous report on the situation in the country. In order to neutralize the protests in the short term, the authorities ordered a massive and fierce repression, in which 24 to 26 people were reportedly killed in the context of demonstrations. In addition, a quota of more than two thousand citizens to be detained was set to generate an inhibiting effect, creating conditions for massive extortion by officials. These “hard” mechanisms were, after August 31, complemented with “soft” mechanisms, which included the approval of a law against NGOs, the massive cancellation of passports, dismissals for political reasons, the encouragement of community denunciation through a technological application, the checking of cell phones in police stations and the dissemination of frightening messages by government spokespersons.
Nicolás Maduro has been the main spokesman of the repression strategies, which have been publicly disclosed, including the fabrication of false positives to delegitimize reports of violations to the right to life in the context of the protests, in a coordinated manner at different levels of public power, in conjunction with his allies. As of August 29th there were 1590 detainees confirmed by NGOs, 86.1% men and 13.9% women. In the patterns linked to the detentions there were forced disappearances of short duration, refusal to be represented by their trusted lawyers, massive application of anti-terrorism legislation, virtual hearings in summary trials, deprivation of liberty of adolescents and people with disabilities. In addition, after July 28th, at least 184 actions by armed civilians, known as “Colectivos”, were registered.
The report includes a special report on a state in the interior of the country, Yaracuy, to make visible the situation of fundamental rights violations outside the capital region, which usually receives the most attention.
Among the recommendations of the report, addressed to the international community, are to maintain mediation efforts and diplomatic pressure on Venezuelan authorities; to increase measures of individual recognition of those responsible for human rights violations; to take measures to recognize Venezuelans who will leave the country as beneficiaries of refuge according to the Cartagena Declaration; That the States parties of the Rome Statute influence the International Criminal Court so that the situations denounced are included within the investigation file, as well as initiate universal justice processes in their jurisdictions; That the non-recognition of the results announced by the CNE be maintained until there is a detailed disclosure, verified by an electoral forensic review carried out by independent electoral technicians; The regional review of the Inter-American Democratic Charter and the creation of new and novel mechanisms for multilateral advocacy on institutional breakdowns in the continent; The inclusion of the issue of Venezuela in the Celac-European Union Summit to be held in Colombia in 2025; That social organizations and regional NGOs develop initiatives to “Name and Shame” the violators of human rights in Venezuela, as well as experiences of solidarity with national organizations working on the ground under conditions of greater restriction and, finally, that the international community recognizes the victims of human rights violations as interlocutors in the Venezuelan crisis.
“Post-electoral and Human Rights Crisis 2024 in Venezuela” is subtitled ‘The Black Report of the Dictatorship 2024’, in allusion to a similar document released in 1952 to denounce the excesses of the military regime of Marcos Pérez Jiménez. “This report is a continuation of those yearnings for democracy and dignity,” the authors stated.
