In one week, the Government of Nicolás Maduro kicked – once again and with unusual violence – the fragile system of human rights protection in Venezuela with the arrest of the activist and security and defense expert Rocío San Miguel and the expulsion from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which had been operating in Caracas since 2019.
(Also read: After suspension of the UN human rights office in Caracas, activists fear more abuses)
This in the midst of the fight with the international community and the opposition over the disqualification of presidential candidate María Corina Machado, and the lack of an electoral calendar for this year.
According to the latest study by the firm Polianalítico, Machado enjoys the support of 50 percent of potential voters while Maduro does not reach 20 percent, which is a sign of Chavismo's need for control as they know they are lost.
Human rights activists assure that these two actions will intensify the repressive pattern that not in vain led to an investigation for crimes against humanity against Venezuela in the International Criminal Court (ICC), and that could at least be documented first-hand in Caracas. with the UN office.
(You may be interested in: Chavismo intensifies pre-electoral repression through arrests and persecution of opponents)
For lawyer Andrea Santa Cruz, the message sent with the arrest of San Miguel is powerful, as the State lashes out against NGOs and activists.
This occurs not only through police action, but the persecution will also be through “legal” means through the text that can be approved at any time in Parliament and is called 'Law on inspection, regularization, action and financing. of non-governmental and related organizations'.
“It is a risk because the requirements are not met and regularization becomes unfeasible because it is at the discretion of the State, it subjects NGOs and it is an instrument of retaliation,” said Santa Cruz while demanding the release of San Miguel, president of the organization Citizen Control. and that to date he remains without communication with his lawyers, since the justice system assigned him a public defender at the same time that his home was raided.
(Also read: United States, 'deeply concerned' by arrest of activist Rocío San Miguel)
In the last year, 62 organizations have been criminalized, Santa Cruz reiterates, and this includes persecution, intimidation and threats. “An environment is needed for public space in Venezuela and that is why it is not acceptable that Rocío is arbitrarily detained,” insists Santa Cruz.
But the UN itself had already warned last year about the risk that activists and their organizations run. and how it can be increased if the legal instruments are approved in Parliament.
“If sanctioned, the law on NGOs could represent a point of no return in the closure of civic and democratic space in Venezuela,” warned Marta Valiñas, president of the UN Fact-Finding Mission in January of last year.
For Claudia Carrillo, psychologist from the Committee of Relatives of Caracazo Victims (Cofavic), the government onslaught is a serious issue that should not be taken lightly. At the same time that he asked for the freedom of San Miguel, Carrillo counted 2,227 attacks on defenders and organizations, with the last three years being the ones with the greatest threat, discredit campaign, and the “use of forced disappearance as a State mechanism.”
Regarding the last point, activists insist that the practice is common and that in the case of San Miguel it was clear. She was arrested on February 9 at the Maiquetía international airport when she was heading to Europe, and until today we only have information from the statements of the attorney general, Tarek William Saab, who confirmed the arrest two days later and through the social network .
“Women defenders are the main victims of forced disappearance, which is one of the worst mechanisms. This action seeks to break the social fabric in the country,” said Marta Tineo, from the NGO Justicia Encuentro y Perdón, which was born in 2014 at the initiative of a mother whose daughter was murdered in protests against Nicolás Maduro.
In an election year –although still without an election date–, sensitivities are on the surface. The Government has imprisoned at least 38 people, accusing them of being involved in an alleged conspiracy to assassinate Maduro and other members of the Executive.
Victims lose their only impartial and independent body in the country, where they could report human rights violations without fear of reprisals.
San Miguel is one of them and who, according to prosecutor William Saab, his arrest was carried out “within the legal limits and in strict accordance with the law. A presentation hearing was held prior to an arrest warrant,” he declared.
And precisely for rejecting the action against the president of the NGO Citizen Control, Caracas expelled the representatives of the UN High Commissioner's Office, who were given 72 hours to leave the country if they did not rectify their “stance against Venezuela,” which has been “infamous,” said Foreign Minister Yván Gil.
Although the UN has shown concern, NGOs have done so more. For the organization Acceso a la Justicia, the expulsion from the office has devastating consequences, since “the victims lose their only impartial and independent body in the country, where they could report human rights violations without fear of reprisals.”
In a statement, the NGO reiterated that in addition to listening to victims and documenting, “the office achieved releases and cessations of violations, set international standards and provided understanding of the local context.
Now, without their presence, the defense of human rights, coordination with other entities and rapid action in favor of victims are difficult.
“It is a blow to the protection of the human rights of all Venezuelans,” the statement says.
For some analysts, these actions occur in an election year in which politics remains unresolved given Machado's disqualification.
“San Miguel handles the military issue very well and the UN has given compelling reports that demonstrate the abuses in Venezuela, so it is clear that the regime would go against them to instill fear,” political scientist Carlos Zambrano explains to this newspaper.
For Zambrano, the role of the international community must be forceful at this time, since the abuses “that will continue to happen” will bring “serious consequences for the country, such as the continuity of Chavismo in power.”
The United States has once again stated its position and expressed its “alarm” over Venezuela’s “retaliatory decision to temporarily suspend the UN Human Rights Office and expel its staff after its report expressed deep concern about the detention of the activist Rocío San Miguel,” reads a publication by X from the United States embassy in Venezuela, but which operates in Colombia.
On the street, the few who are aware of the events – since not all have access to the internet to read news – are afraid to express any opinion against the Government, and take as their basis the imprisonment, also classified as forced disappearance, of Carlos Zalazar, about whom there has been no further information after he was arrested for recording the Colombian Álex Saab while he was shopping on the island of Margarita. Faced with facts like these, citizens prefer not to give their opinion.
INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL
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