According to Venezuelan human rights nongovernmental organization (NGO) Provea, Venezuelan security forces killed 10,085 people in the last 10 years. The data presented in a new report mostly refers to extrajudicial executions, but also includes deaths during the massive protests that took place in 2014 and 2017.
The number of murders increased until 2020, then began to fall. According to the NGO, the documented drop may have been due to underreporting or lack of press coverage.
In 2023 alone, the total number of victims was 620, the majority between the ages of 18 and 30, with the Bolivarian National Police responsible for 30 percent of the murders. The April 30 report, Maduro, a Dark Decade for Human Rights, also indicates that 43,003 victims of personal integrity violations were recorded, including 1,652 victims of torture and 7,309 victims of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment.
“Since 1989, Provea has monitored reports of human rights violations in the national and regional media. In the case of violations of the right to life, an additional verification process is carried out to get to statistics of alleged killings by security forces. This information is published annually in the Annual Report and this assessment of Maduro’s 10 years consolidates the reports from 2013-2023,” Lissette González, Provea’s research coordinator, told Diálogo, explaining that most of the victims are young people from working-class sectors and that the year that recorded the most deaths was 2019.
“Although the trend has been growing since 2015, with the start of the Popular Liberation Operations, which are military operations of citizen security, popular urban neighborhoods have been taken over and multiple excesses have been committed to ‘put an end to crime,’” González said.
The NGO warns of a potential increase in repression in view of the July 28 presidential elections, in which Maduro is seeking a third six-year term. The launch of the report coincides with complaints of an “alarming increase in enforced disappearances” from human rights groups and experts from the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, due to the persecution of opponents during the presidential campaign.
Foro Penal, a Venezuelan NGO that provides legal assistance to arbitrarily detained people, reported that between 2014 and 2024, 15,827 detentions were recorded. According to Foro Penal, there are currently 273 “confirmed political prisoners” in Venezuela, including military personnel and civilians. Many of them have been held for longer than the period allowed for pre-trial detention, which constitutes a violation of legal rights, including due process.
“There is a significant intensification of the persecution of human rights activists or nongovernmental political forces in Venezuela,” said Gonzalo Himiob, Foro Penal’s vice-president, AFP reported.
Since January, some nine aides to opposition leader María Corina Machado have been arrested. Venezuelan security forces also arrested other activists, such as Rocío San Miguel, an expert on military issues, who was detained in February, accused of plotting to overthrow Maduro.
“As the country prepares for the presidential elections in July 2024, these forced disappearances could have a deterrent effect and hinder the population’s right to vote freely,” warned the U.N. Working Group, CNN reported.
On the same day that the report was released, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) adopted a resolution expanding precautionary protection measures to all Provea members. The NGO, which has been defending human rights in Venezuela for 35 years, has been sued and threatened several times and a staff member was kidnapped during the 2014 protests.
“The team of coordinators already had precautionary measures in place since 2015, due to the threats and attacks mentioned. Since 2022, Provea has been publicly targeted. Fearing for the integrity and freedom of the team, it was requested that these measures be extended to the entire working team of the organization,” González said.
The IACHR is a principal and autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), whose mandate derives from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. González said that the IACHR resolution means a little more protection in practice: “The political cost of the detention or disappearance of a Provea member increases” for the regime.