The Secretary General of Amnesty International (AI), Agnès Callamard, denounced in an interview with EFE in Lisbon that Venezuela has gone from bad to worse in terms of human rights and that there has been no progress during the last decade.
Callamard stressed that her organization has “the same diagnosis” of the Latin American country as the one recently made by a mission of independent experts, established by the UN Human Rights Council.
According to that mission, Venezuela has suffered one of the most serious human rights crises after the elections last July, in which President Nicolás Maduro was proclaimed the winner in a controversial announcement, since the opposition rejects the result and has denounced fraud.
Callamard stressed that AI has carried out a “thorough” investigation in the last five years and has found “evidence” of crimes against humanity committed in Venezuelan territory, “in particular politically motivated persecution.”
“We have found evidence of extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary detentions, stigmatization of human rights defenders and arrests of people for dissenting from the authorities,” said Callamard, who stressed that “in the post-electoral period, repression has escalated” and “a marked deterioration has been observed.”
In this regard, she recalled that some 2,000 people who were arrested after the elections remain in detention, including several pro-human rights activists.
In addition, “we know that at least 25 people have died from the use of lethal force, including minors,” she added. “We know that an anti-NGO law has been adopted; that minors have been mistreated and are still in detention.”
This situation has also affected AI: “Our colleagues at Amnesty International have had to leave, they have had to take many precautions to continue their work,” said Callamard.
Given this situation, the group is calling for “the unconditional release of those who are detained for the peaceful expression of their political or other views.”
“We must demand an end to arbitrary detentions, we must demand accountability for everything that has happened…”, stressed Amnesty International Secretary General.
Callamard believed that the sanctions regime against Venezuela “works moderately,” since during and after the pandemic, and throughout the war in Ukraine, “Venezuela and Venezuelan oil have become an interesting attraction, even for those who wanted to condemn Venezuela.”
“Therefore, this is one of those proactive human rights crises and it seems that there is no end in sight there either,” concluded the activist. EFE