Early in Venezuela’s electoral year Nicolás Maduro undertook a set of measures to distance the country from the United Nations (U.N.) system of human rights protection and aiming at closing the civic space.
A sign of what was to come appeared in December, when the regime’s prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, ordered the arrest of Roberto Abdul, director of Venezuelan nongovernmental organization (NGO) Súmate, which monitors the legality of the electoral process.
Abdul was held for several days accused of “treason,” detained in the facilities of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service, Maduro’s political police. He was released on December 20, after a negotiation process involving representatives of the opposition and the U.S. government.
This did not stop Maduro from continuing to persecute his opponents, critics, and NGO representatives. In the following weeks, the regime detained and accused of terrorism four regional activists of Vente Venezuela, the party led by María Corina Machado, winner of the opposition primaries held in October 2023, who was Maduro’s main opponent at the polls.
On February 9, a new stage of this process began when lawyer Rocio San Miguel, director of Control Ciudadano, an organization dedicated to the analysis of military and security matters, was arrested. San Miguel was detained at Maiquetía Airport together with her daughter. Other relatives of the lawyer were detained when they went to the airport to pick up their luggage or to request information on her whereabouts. Among them were two brothers and her husband, Air Colonel (ret.) Alejandro González de Canales.
San Miguel’s fate was unknown for 72 hours. Civil society organizations such as Acceso a la Justicia warned that the activist was a victim of forced disappearance. On the third day, the regime’s prosecutor confirmed, without revealing her location, that San Miguel was in custody, accused of an alleged conspiracy to assassinate the Venezuelan autocrat.
On February 13, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Caracas, said via X that they followed with “deep concern the process against San Miguel. Her whereabouts are still unknown, which could effectively qualify her detention as a forced disappearance.”
The U.N. Independent Fact-Finding Mission, through its spokesperson Marta Valiñas, pronounced itself similarly. Immediately thereafter, the Venezuelan regime expelled the local staff of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. This team of 12 people had been in Caracas permanently since 2019, when the regime itself granted them the corresponding permit. In a statement, Foreign Minister Yván Gil affirmed that the measure will be maintained “until they publicly rectify before the international community their colonialist attitude.”
According to Director of Acceso a la Justicia Laura Louza, the case of San Miguel indicates “a pattern, which consists of detaining a person and applying similar measures to their closest relatives.”
“The difference is that this way of acting had not been seen, and that, I also think, is important to note, because it was known in the field of human rights, it was known in the international community field, in those who are dedicated to this. But not in the general population,” Louza told Diálogo on March 15. “Maduro went to another level since he is no longer interested in keeping up certain appearances. The regime is willing to pay the high cost of these decisions against the U.N. mission to stay in power.”
International organization Civicus, dedicated to human rights monitoring, warned that civic space in Venezuela had been shut down.
“Several censorship mechanisms are being applied as part of a strategy to persecute human rights defenders and limit expressions critical of the regime,” Civicus said in February.
Louza maintained that San Miguel’s arrest was a warning to the opposition that the Maduro regime is willing to overstep all limits to remain in power. “We have fewer freedoms. There are things that we used to do and that we can no longer do, not only we in the NGOs but all Venezuelans, the country’s inhabitants,” she said.
Creating fear
On February 19, Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal reported that there were 264 political prisoners in Venezuela. Among these, 147 are members of the military and 19 are women like Rocio San Miguel.
These are the numbers with which Venezuelan began its electoral year. According to Marino Alvarado, Enforceability coordinator of the Provea organization, the immediate future of the country will be defined by “an increase in repression for political reasons.”
“Visible and not so visible leaders will be affected, trying to create terror. There will be an increase in the harassment of civil society organizations, particularly those linked to promoting voting and electoral monitoring,” Alvarado told Diálogo.
The Venezuelan electoral body, dominated by the ruling party, announced on March 5 that the presidential election will be held on July 28.
Alvarado warned that the dictatorship will close the possibilities of access to the media for all options other than Maduro. “Repression will increase to put fear the closer we get to election day. It may even include community leaders willing to pitch in with the observation process and to participate at polling stations,” he said.