The international pressure against the administration of Nicolás Maduro remains firm. This time with a new report published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, that rejects the designation of the new National Electoral Council on the part of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice.
“The new report is very important. The High Commissioner is speaking out about what is happening in Venezuela, with remarks that are always going to exist; these are very big allegations of human rights violations that make evident that there is no ideological affinity with the regime,” Ali Daniels, Director of the NGO Acceso a la Justicia told HispanoPost.
He indicated that “some years ago the Latin American left was folding, blind to what was happening in Venezuela, but since Bachelet uttered this they’ve begun to show rifts. For us it’s a great step forward.” “You can be a leftist, but what you can’t be is a person alien to the violations of human rights,” he said.
“It is fundamental that the international community fixes its view on Venezuela, because there are countries that are in worse situations and the international community ignores them. To those that criticize the report, I say: what would happen if the government knew that the international community didn’t care about what happened in Venezuela; what would the government do? The mere fact that the international community is paying attention to Venezuela and denouncing it is very important,” he stressed.
He explained that the most alarming part of the report is the theme that “they are continuing to denounce the pattern of extrajudicial executions by the FAES; it brings to light that with the allegations the commissioner has made since 2019, the Venezuelan State hasn’t just not reformed the FAES, but it has strengthened and worsened it; this situation is detestable.” “The government can’t eliminate the FAES as an element that provides support to the regime,” he added.
For Daniels, the international organizations “are adding pressure to the Venezuelan State; they maintain the focus on Venezuela.” “They’re telling the government that it isn’t true that they respect human rights; they’re telling the government that ‘you do not have rule of law – to the contrary, you are deepening the violations.’”
Foro Penal Venezolano also analyzed the new report from the high commissioner. Alfredo Romero, president of the NGO, concurred with Daniels in that none of the recommendations have been complied with. However, he cautioned that the presentation fails to elaborate on some themes referring to violations and persecution by State organisms, although he reminded that it is necessary to wait for the extension of the report that will be released this coming July 15th.
Romero condemns that the intimidation by the national government against the organizations that are defenders of human rights “has fortified the seed of fear and has propagated the silence.”
He urged Bachelet to monitor the situation in Venezuela. “The outrages and political prisoners have grown considerably,” he affirmed.
Translated by: Hannah Sawyer
