Venezuela’s intelligence agencies are committing crimes against humanity as part of a plan orchestrated by the Nicolás maduro regime to repress dissent, warns a mid-September United Nations (U.N.) report. The repression is carried out “including through the commission of extremely grave acts of torture,” the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission [ … ]
The Community-Military Brigades (Bricomiles) created by the Nicolás Maduro regime in late June to repair and refurbish the country’s public schools and health centers are raising suspicions that soldiers with the brigades may get involved in educational matters. Members of the Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB), the ruling United Socialist Party [ … ]
Narcotrafficking operations, gold and gasoline smuggling, and corruption in Venezuela’s ports and customs have increased in recent years as the South American country became a hub of organized crime in the region. These were some of the findings of a study by the Venezuelan branch of nongovernmental organization Transparency International, [ … ]
The presence in Chile of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang of Venezuelan origin has put authorities in the region on alert, especially in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. “The Tren de Aragua has logistics that allow it to extend its networks and actively participate in organized crime such as [ … ]
Mining operations in the southernVenezuelan states of Bolívar and Amazonas, with the support of the Nicolás Maduro regime, represent the greatest threat to the human rights, habitat, cultures, and territories of indigenous populations, globalnews agency IPS Noticias reported. In these regions of the Amazon, mafias, traders, sindicatos (gangs originally linked [ … ]
According to recent reports from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), human rights violations in Venezuela continued throughout 2021, resulting in a high number of victims, despite international scrutiny. “Police and service members caused the death, throughout the national territory, of 1,414 people between January and December 2021,” said Venezuelan human rights NGO [ … ]
The Nicolás Maduro regime has been exploiting the growth of armed groups in Venezuela, encouraging the strengthening of some illegal groups considered useful for social control and repression. “The Maduro regime realized that it is not capable of exercising control with its own forces. It is trying to have territorial [ … ]
An alliance between Colombian criminal groups and the Venezuelan military is turning Venezuela into an emerging cocaine producer. The country is no longer just a transit point for the drug, InSight Crime, an organization that studies organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, said in its May 2022 report [ … ]
In 2021, the Colombian Navy broke its all-time record for drug seizures with 403 tons of illicit substances confiscated. Colombia accounts for two thirds of the global area under coca bush cultivation and cocaine production, according to the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime’s World Drug Report 2021. The [ … ]
On April 21, International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan rejected Venezuela’s request to delay an ICC investigation into alleged human rights violations. Khan also signaled his intention to resume the investigation as soon as possible. “Having reviewed the basis of the deferral request, I have concluded that no new [ … ]
A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report accuses Venezuela’s security forces of carrying out operations with the Colombian guerrilla group National Liberation Army (ELN), and of causing “a dramatic increase in violence in the first months of 2022” in the border departments of Arauca, in Colombia, and Apure, in Venezuela. The [ … ]
The CASLA Institute, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) based in the Czech Republic that monitors democracy in Latin America, presented on March 11, 2022 to the Organization of American States (OAS) the report Crimes against Humanity in Venezuela 2021, which shows the chain of command within the Nicolás Maduro regime and [ … ]
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