It has been almost a month since the presidential election on July 28th in Venezuela and the results announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE) remain the main point of contempt in the country.
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Since the early hours of Monday, July 29th, when the president of the CNE announced Nicolás Maduro as the winner, the population began to show signs of discontent.
A large majority is convinced that the winner was the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.
This confident view is supported by the electoral records published by the Unitary Platform and is somehow reaffirmed by the conduct of the ruling party since then, which still hasn’t shown any records that support the result announced by the CNE, as is mandated by the law.
However, the actions of the Maduro administration do not stop there. The persecution of opposition political leaders and anyone who questions the results has increased, as well as arbitrary arrests, repression of peaceful demonstrations and the sowing of fear from the discourse of the high government command.
A whole series of events lead the coordinator of the Venezuelan NGO ‘Program for Education-Action in Human Rights’ (Provea), Oscar Murillo, to affirm that Venezuela is going through one of the darkest chapters in Latin America in terms of human rights.
In fact, the expert compares the situation of the country with what Chile experienced during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, taking into account the number of arbitrary arrests and the narrative to generate widespread terror, and violate the civil and political rights of the population.
Human Rights Violated
Murillo indicated that one must be aware of the seriousness of what the Venezuelan government is doing, among which the abuses of public force and non-state actors stand out the so-called ‘colectivos’ (collectives, government supported armed gangs).
“In this way, constitutional guarantees which involve personal freedom, the right to life, the right to due process, etc. are suspended. The rights to peaceful demonstration, free expression and access to justice are also violated,” he explained.
The coordinator of Provea, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that has closely followed everything that has happened in the last 20 days, reiterated how delicate is the issue of mass repression applied by the government in the post-election demonstrations.
He pointed out that for these actions they usually appeal to armed and pro-government civilian actors, in addition to security forces such as the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) or the Bolivarian National Police (PNB).
Punishment of the population
Although it is true that in the last decade there were emblematic periods of citizen protests against the Maduro government, such as in 2014, 2017 and 2019, for Murillo the situation in 2024 is special and alarming.
According to him, the abuses recorded in the first two weeks of August in Venezuela can be compared with those of 2014 and 2017. Although there is something particular about this year: the excesses are greater and have occurred in a shorter period.
“The official figure (more than 2,000 people) is equivalent to 46% of the arrests recorded between April and August 2017. This is worrying because the protests in 2017 can be considered the most important since ‘El Caracazo’ in 1989,” said the coordinator of Provea.
He added that “in 2019, 31 murders of protesters were reported between February 21 and 24, while between July 29 and 30, 2024, there were 24.”
The university professor also insisted on the increase in the State’s terror mechanism, “which has deployed the repressive machinery from the highest (levels of) power.”
For the human rights expert, everything is not only part of a plan that seeks to crush the popular clamor, but also a punishment for the citizenry. Murillo supported this theory with the fact that most of the repressive acts were in popular areas, which showed a loss of what was a bastion of Chavismo.
It is worth noting that the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict (OVCS) reported in mid-August that 75% of the repressed protests were in low income neighborhoods. This is in line with what Murillo said regarding the “punishment” by Maduro’s regime of territories where they were undisputed winners in elections some time ago.
The spokesman also stressed that there is a massification of political persecution with the widespread use of the so-called “anti-terrorism law” and “law against hate”.
He added that little by little there has been a shift from massive repression to specific repression, using a structure of informers within the communities.
He also recalled that in previous years Maduro’s government called those who protested “coup plotters”, while now they are called “fascists”.
He also mentioned that there is a “law against fascism” in the works, which can even be applied to those who participate in demonstrations for wages, public services, etc.
Model to follow
Oscar Murillo said that, in his opinion, “we are witnesses and victims of a film in which we go from authoritarianism to totalitarianism. And the reference is the Nicaraguan model of Daniel Ortega”.
He added that all the current Venezuelan government is doing is ignoring Article 5 of the National Constitution, which makes it clear that the people are the sole owners of their political destiny.
“Maduro’s totalitarian turn is the peak of the destruction of democracy in Venezuela. There is no point of comparison. And we have suffered several authoritarian regimes throughout history,” said the human rights expert.
Murillo said that what we have seen in Venezuela is similar to the satellite countries of the Soviet Union, where destruction reigned “at gunpoint and terror.”
“Republican democracy is under siege. The defense of humanity’s wellbeing has its epicenter in Venezuela. The global democratic leadership, which includes the European Union, Canada, the United States, among others, is being tested in this corner of South America,” he emphasized.
Justice
For the coordinator of Provea, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, must reevaluate the strategy applied in Venezuela so that victims of human rights violations and crimes against humanity receive justice.
Murillo explained that the prosecutor used a “model of positive complementarity” for the South American nation, which is something new and has not been used in other countries so far.
According to him, the ICC used this mechanism because, in theory, the Venezuelan government was willing to correct the main reason for which it is accused: political persecution.
However, in recent weeks it became evident that the opposite occurred, as there was a “repressive escalation.”
The expert emphasized that there is no political will to dispense justice from the country’s judicial system, because “Maduro, courts and prosecutor’s office are together a repressive machine.”
Murillo recalled that in international justice there are time periods and processes that must be respected, although he pointed out that prosecutor Khan is already at the point of presenting a case.
Likewise, he indicated that although Maduro’s regime is seeking to legalize persecution with “hate or anti-fascism laws,” the United Nations (UN) also monitors compliance with human rights according to international standards.
He also noted that the ‘NGO regularization law’ is linked to all this, since there are organizations within Venezuela that register with the ICC.
Pillars
In the opinion of Oscar Murillo, Venezuelans must cling to two fundamental pillars in the midst of the dark and turbulent panorama that currently exists: family and solidarity.
The university professor, who expressed his support for the families who are victims of repression, believes that this support has to endure above all things.
“Despite the feeling of hopelessness, frustration and pain as a result of all the blows received,” he pointed out.
Finally, he pointed out that the human rights crisis in Venezuela will only have a solution when the institutions return to fulfilling their roles and mandates.
He also indicated that “Maduro’s entrenchment generates a stagnation of public policies that we should all be discussing.”