Opposition leader María Corina Machado wants those responsible for crimes against humanity in Venezuela to be tried and held accountable by international justice.
"The world cannot remain indifferent. The suffering of Venezuelans cannot be forgotten or go unpunished. We will not rest until those responsible for these crimes are held accountable, justice is served and our country is free," Machado said on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
The leader was reacting on Tuesday to the conclusions of the fifth report of the United Nations' independent international fact-finding mission, which report an intensification of efforts by President Nicolás Maduro's regime to "crush all peaceful opposition."
The document "confirms what we have tirelessly denounced: the Venezuelan regime has used violence, repression and terror as weapons to try to silence Venezuelans who defend democracy and freedom. Children have been kidnapped and tortured, leaders have been persecuted, activists and journalists have been harassed, and entire families are now mourning one of their own," Machado said.
The UN mission denounced on Tuesday the "instrumentalization" of the entire state apparatus, particularly the judicial system, in a report covering the period between September 1, 2023 and August 31, 2024.
According to the document, which will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, the crisis has plunged Venezuela "into one of the most serious human rights crises in recent history."
The mission considered that, after the July presidential elections, "a new milestone was reached in the deterioration of the rule of law," commenting that "public authorities have abandoned any semblance of independence and, in practice, many judicial guarantees have lost their effectiveness, leaving citizens defenseless against the arbitrary exercise of power."
"Although it is a continuation of previous patterns, which the mission has already characterized as crimes against humanity, the recent repression, due to its intensity and systematic nature, represents a very serious attack on the fundamental rights of the Venezuelan people," highlighted the president of the mission, the Portuguese jurist Marta Valiñas.
Venezuela, a country with a significant community of Portuguese and Portuguese descendants, held presidential elections on July 28, after which the National Electoral Council (CNE) attributed the victory to Maduro with just over 51% of the votes, while the opposition claims that its candidate, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia - currently exiled in Spain - obtained almost 70% of the votes.
The Venezuelan opposition and several countries in the international community have denounced electoral fraud and demanded that the voting records be presented for independent verification, which the CNE says is impossible due to a cyberattack it allegedly suffered.
The election results have been contested in the streets, with demonstrations repressed by the security forces, with around two thousand arrests and more than two dozen deaths.
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