UN report: Venezuelan intelligence officials repressed dissent

A new report published by the UN on Tuesday highlights that Venezuelan officials, security services, and intelligence agents “committed crimes against humanity and repressed dissident” voices, in order to silence opposition efforts. It cites actions orchestrated by President Nicolas Maduro himself, as well as other “high-level individuals.” 

The new document was conducted by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (FFMV) and mentions cases of “arbitrary arrest” since 2014 — when the country’s economic and humanitarian crisis went into full swing.

The report was based on hundreds of in-person and remote interviews and also uncovered over 77 cases of “torture, sexual violence and/or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” against people detained by both the Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) and the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), bodies that became feared repression tools under the left-wing regime. 

UN FFMV chief Marta Valiñas concludes that the Venezuelan State “relies on the intelligence services and its agents to repress dissent in the country,” he says, adding that “these practices must stop immediately, and the individuals responsible must be investigated and prosecuted in accordance with the law.”

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