A total of 29 human rights NGOs called on Monday (9) for the urgent renewal of the mandate of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, which was due to end in October, in a context of “intensification of post-electoral repression” in the country.
“Disrupting the mission’s work at such a crucial time would have negative implications for the protection of victims, survivors and the general population, and could further encourage the government [regime] Venezuelan government to continue its brutal repression,” the NGOs said in a joint statement.
The mission, chaired by Portuguese jurist Marta Valiñas and completed by Chilean Francisco Cox and Argentine Patricia Tappatá, was created in 2019 by order of the UN Human Rights Council to investigate extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment committed since 2014.
Renewed twice (2020 and 2022), the mission promoted by several Latin American countries and Canada issued several reports in which it accused Venezuelan authorities, including dictator Nicolás Maduro, of possible crimes against humanity.
Their work must continue, the signatory organizations stressed, at a time of violent repression of protests against the lack of transparency in the July 28 elections, in which more than 20 deaths and 2,400 arrests were recorded.
The crackdown is an indicator that “the need to renew the mandate of the experts is more urgent than ever,” warned the organizations, including Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 election without presenting, as required by law, the disaggregated voting records, which were released by the opposition to support allegations of fraud and the assertion that its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, who has been in exile in Spain since Sunday, won by a wide margin.
The Chavista dictatorship claims that the results published on the internet are “false” and, to date, has not presented those that would prove that Maduro won.
A new report from the UN mission in Venezuela will be presented on September 19 during the 57th session of the Human Rights Council, which began this Monday, and at the end of the five weeks of debates, in the second week of October, the renewal of the mandate should be voted on.
For renewal, it is necessary to obtain a majority vote from the Council, formed by 47 UN member states, in which the Latin American representation is currently composed of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras and Paraguay. (With EFE Agency)
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