The fourth report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (A/HRC/54/57), presented before the United Nations Human Rights Council on September 20, 2023, addressed the illegitimate use of the State apparatus and its mechanisms of repression and restrictions on civic and democratic space in the country. The report documents the different forms of repression that the Venezuelan regime has exercised as part of a deliberate and systematic policy of suppressing opinions contrary to the practices, decisions and interests of the Government, and establishes its impact on the shrinking of civic and democratic space in Venezuela.
This time, the Mission focused on identifying a set of limitations and restrictions on fundamental rights (such as freedom of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association, and the right to participate in public affairs) that constitute manifest human rights violations derived from a policy of selective repression and closure of democratic space. The investigations documented by the Mission in the period 2020-2023 show that the Venezuelan authorities continue to use torture as part of State policy to silence, discourage and suppress opposition to the Government, in particular under the selective repression of social and political leaders.
The Mission is now taking a closer look into the evolution of the patterns and mechanisms of selective repression against people opposed to the Government or perceived as such -e.g. journalists-, with the aim of undermining public criticism and the supervision of citizens over public matters. One of the manifestations of this systematic policy noted in the report is a series of acts of persecution and arbitrary detention -including torture-, against individuals who denounce acts of corruption.
The report identifies several cases, including the case of Eudis Girot, a worker at the State-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) and former executive director of the Unitary Federation of Petroleum Workers of Venezuela (FUTPV), a trade union who denounced alleged cases of fuel smuggling and widespread corruption within the company, as well as their impact on the collapse of the oil industry. In November 2020, the union leader was detained and tortured by agents of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) after having publicly denounced different acts of corruption and was prosecuted for the “disclosure of confidential information.” The sentencing hearing took place On May 9, 2022, at the Court for terrorism-related crimes, which punished Mr. Girot with three years in prison for instigating the commission of a crime, in addition to a sentence ordering his political disqualification.
The report indicates that these reasons were expressly mentioned to several of the victims at the moment of the sentencing. Acts of torture and ill-treatment were also committed with the aim of forcing detainees to sign false statements and extracting fabricated confessions or information that could be used to incriminate other people. In one case, a detainee was forced to ingest a narcotic substance to obtain a false confession. On different occasions, the confessions were recorded by security agents and subsequently disseminated in traditional and social media to assert the guilt of the people detained.
In the period covered by the report -2020 onwards-, the Mission observed that the Venezuelan criminal justice system was instrumentalized to restrict civic and democratic space in the country through the criminalization of people opposed to the Government or perceived as such. The practice involves, among others, arbitrary accusations, the abuse of precautionary measures, as well as undue delays and other violations of due process.
The Mission notes that it has reasonable grounds to believe that, instead of protecting and guaranteeing human rights, the Venezuelan criminal justice system has been used to penalize those who try to generate an open and democratic debate. The Mission received testimonies according to which charges in criminal investigations are pressed on the people who denounce acts of corruption in public institutions. In the report, the mission concludes that it has reasonable grounds to believe that these acts were intended to punish people for their participation in trade unions or the defense of human rights, or for denouncing acts of corruption.
The Mission also identified the widespread practice of censorship of the work of journalists and in social media through the application of arbitrary and discretionary administrative sanctions by the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL), which also shows that the cases of criminalization of people who denounce corruption are not isolated incidents but part of a generalized policy of opacity. Some of the topics most frequently subjected to censorship are the allegations of corruption or violations by public officials, their relatives or other individuals close to power, which generates an effect of intimidation and inhibition (self-censorship) contrary to freedom of expression and the right to access to public information, and to the detriment of transparency in public management.
It is worth recalling that Resolution A/HRC/RES/47/7 adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council on July 12, 2021, on the negative impact of corruption on the enjoyment of rights human rights underlines “the importance of creating a safe and enabling environment, in law and in practice, for civil society, whistle-blowers, witnesses, anti-corruption activists, journalists, prosecutors, lawyers and judges, and of protecting these individuals from any threats arising from their activities in preventing and fighting against corruption.” In the same sense, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders pointed out in her 2021 report (A/HRC/49/49) that people who denounce irregularities or expose cases of bribery or corruption on a small or large scale often run a great risk, and notes that those who fight corruption are frequent targets of attacks (para. 19). These attacks may come in the form of acts of retaliation and intimidation that include the irregular use of criminal procedures to silence whistleblowers within State agencies.
The Rapporteur stressed that “[a]pplying a human rights perspective to acts of corruption by State and non-State actors is a reminder that the State bears the ultimate responsibility for protecting human rights defenders working on anti-corruption.” (para.35) and concluded her report by recommending – among other things – that States: (j) Prioritize the adoption and implementation of legislative and other measures to protect informants and whistle-blowers, including comprehensive whistleblower protection laws in line with international human rights standards and best practices, including by: (i) Protecting whistle-blowers against all forms of retaliation, disadvantage or discrimination, including against legal proceedings. (p.20-21 ).
Considering corruption a crime and abuse of power, a person who is arbitrarily persecuted and detained for denouncing acts of corruption can also be considered a victim under the Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power adopted by the United Nations General Assembly through resolution 40/34 on November 29, 1985; Therefore, whenever a person who denounces irregular acts of public interest is brought under attack, persecution, arbitrarily detention and harm, they become both the victims of the violation of their rights and freedoms and the victims of corruption.
In its first report in 2020 (A/HRC/45/CRP.11), the Mission had already drawn attention to the need for a more thorough investigation into the causes of the crisis in Venezuela, such as “the nexus between corruption and serious human rights violations.” At that time, the Mission found that “a motivating factor behind the human rights violations identified in the present report are the personal financial benefits derived from the capture of State institutions, providing a strong incentive for Government actors to maintain power and ensure impunity.” (para. 116). In its fourth report, the Mission reiterates and documents through specific cases how corruption sits at the center of a triangle formed by organized crime, illicit economies and State capture, resulting from the closure of democratic space and the serious human rights violations committed in Venezuela.
Translated by Jose Rafael Medina
