In early February, human rights activist Rocío San Miguel was taken prisoner when she was leaving through the Maiquetía international airport. At the end of March it was the turn of traveling YouTuber Oscar Alejandro Pérez who was preparing to take a flight to Canaima. Before and after that, arrest warrants have been issued against journalists, political party activists accused of terrorism crimes, and ordinary citizens who took a video or published messages critical of the Government on their social networks.
Chavismo in power has toughened its judicial offensive on the way to the presidential elections on July 28, in which Nicolás Maduro aspires to stay in power for six more years, although most polls give him just over 20% support. compared to the best numbers presented by the main opponent, María Corina Machado, who has been disqualified. In this scenario, in Venezuela anyone can be a suspect.
The fear of being arrested and mentioned on television as part of an alleged conspiracy plot is real. A procedure like crossing the Maiquetía airport can make journalists and activists swallow hard. It has happened to a reporter from a Venezuelan digital media, who is constantly attacked in the programs of the state channel VTV, and who this year, for work and training, has had to travel outside Venezuela several times. “For the first time I have not said in immigration that I am a journalist, but that I am traveling for family matters. I entered Venezuela very nervous, although obviously I was not doing anything wrong. But I feel that here we are all guilty until proven otherwise. Here we are in an every man for himself,” she says from the reservation of her name. It is not clear who could be the target of arbitrary detention, but by targeting one sector of civil society he has managed to intimidate the rest. “My decision has been to censor myself. Then I'll see what the cost of that will be. I'm not going to tweet things that have to do with the country. In addition, I have configured my messaging services so that they are automatically deleted in 24 hours,” says the journalist.
The last few days in Venezuela have been full of news, raw material for journalism. But it has also become more dangerous to report. That is the perception that several reporters have. “It is always worrying that some authority mentions you, since you do not know what the consequence of that mention may be,” acknowledges this fear shared in the union by a journalist who works for international media who also believes it is prudent not to give her name. “Aggression against the international media has increased with a new tendency to point out that what different spokespersons said was “taken out of context,” even when there are recordings. “More and more, journalists are being exposed and senior government officials are doing so.”
In the last month, the NGO Espacio Público documented an increase in attacks on freedom of expression against media, journalists and ordinary citizens. Only in March did the Government order several programs on regional television stations and also the signal of the German channel DW to be taken off the air. A radio station was closed, two new news websites were blocked, YouTuber Oscar Alejandro Pérez was arrested, two other members of the Vente Venezuela party were taken prisoner, and Maduro attacked the EFE and AFP news agencies in his speeches. Jorge Rodríguez, president of the Assembly, did the same against EL PAÍS and the New York Times. “The PSUV candidate said yesterday that Coro was better than Chicago. “What do you think about that?” Content creator Armando Sarmiento said in a video, after a visit by Nicolás Maduro to that city in western Venezuela. Sarmiento was arrested for that and accused of inciting hatred. The pressure continues and reaches more people. This week, the Prosecutor's Office ordered an investigation against journalist Orlando Avendaño, who resides outside of Venezuela, considering that he published messages on X that also instigated hatred. Intelligence officials ended up raiding his parents' house in Caracas, Avendaño denounced. This is how the months go by as Venezuela prepares to go to presidential elections.
Since August of last year, when the race for the opposition primary began, human rights organizations have documented a worrying increase in the policy of criminalization of civil society. The total number of attacks in 2023, more than 500 registered, had an increase of 32% compared to 2022, according to reports from the Center for Defenders and Justice. The Government, for example, has designated Vente Venezuela as a terrorist organization. At least seven members of the team of the candidate who has been prevented from competing were imprisoned. Part of her closest team is taking refuge in the Argentine Embassy. They are accused of participating in alleged plans to assassinate the president. The rest of their militancy has become accustomed to taking care of their movements or being followed by intelligence officials when they travel the country, says Orlando Moreno, national Human Rights coordinator for Vente Venezuela, who speaks by phone from a sheltered location. “We are aware of the risk we run. But we are all united in prayer and moving forward in continuing to demand support from the international community.”
The enemy within
Lawyer Marianna Romero, director of the Center for Defenders and Justice, points out that they have identified patterns of intimidation and threats. Bullying, stigmatization, constant pointing out in official and unofficial spaces, monitoring, presence of security agencies around the homes of activists, threats on social networks, digital attacks on personal and institutional accounts, judicialization, arbitrary detentions with forced disappearances of short duration are part of the inventory of attacks that Venezuelan defenders keep records of. In addition to this, progress continues in legislation aimed at shrinking civic space: the law against hate, approved in 2017, and now the proposed law against fascism, neo-fascism and similar expressions are configured to dissuade any critical position towards the Government.
“The Government works under the logic of the internal enemy that they apply against any opposition person or perceived opposition person, who promotes, defends or demands rights,” says the activist. The accusations under crimes such as terrorism and treason, she adds, support this thesis. “In Venezuela the institutional apparatus represses by action and omission and civil society is reduced. Every repressive policy generates fear, because it seeks inhibition through exemplary punishments. Every time a new incident occurs, fear increases, but so does resilience. “Venezuelan civil society continues to organize and create networks of support and solidarity to provide coordinated responses to what is happening.”
Romero adds that for several years the Venezuelan State has been building the scaffolding of a repressive apparatus, with structures such as the so-called Popular Protection System for Peace (SP3), created by Maduro in 2015, in the first years of his Government. This is an instance of coordination of the different organizational structures of the PSUV militancy, to turn neighbors, workers and citizens into vigilantes of their peers, in a joint action with military forces, police forces, armed civilians in public order functions, as NGOs have documented during peaks of anti-government protests and has also been denounced in reports by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. These have been followed by intimidation actions such as the Bolivarian Fury that Maduro himself called a few months ago, the lawyer denounces. “There is a repressive system that has been created years ago. “We haven’t seen his most violent side yet, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the ability to put it into action.” And that has awakened fear in Venezuela that they could be next.
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