GENEVA - Warning that politically motivated persecution is intensifying, the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela said in a new report today that the only hope to find justice for victims lies with the international community.
The report, which will be presented to the Human Rights Council this morning, reveals new evidence of the harsh post-election repression following the 28 July 2024 presidential election, and warns that politically motivated persecution, including against those who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms has continued in 2025.
The Fact-Finding Mission has concluded that, of the 25 protest-related deaths that occurred between 29 and 30 July 2024, State security forces were involved in at least 12 of them. In the protests in the city of Maracay, Aragua State, members of the Bolivarian National Guard and the 99th Army Brigade fired live ammunition on demonstrators. Six people were killed during those events. One of them was shot with a shotgun from less than 10 meter away.
"The Office of the Attorney General has not publicly provided information on the progress or conclusions of the investigations it claimed to have initiated into these incidents, even though it initially asserted that State agents bore no responsibility for the deaths and instead blamed the opposition," said Marta Valiñas, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission. "However, our investigation has revealed the contrary, and, to date, all of the deaths remain in impunity."
The Fact-Finding Mission investigated the deaths in State custody deaths of five people who were detained during the 2024 and 2025 protests. In two of these cases, the Mission found reasonable grounds to believe that the State failed to act with due diligence by not providing timely and adequate health care to detainees. These individuals were subjected to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
"The State has a heightened obligation to guarantee the life, personal integrity of every person in its custody. The deaths of detainees following the presidential elections, due to the deterioration of their health in prison, constitute arbitrary deprivation of life," said Patricia Tappatá, expert of the Fact-Finding Mission. "In addition to the deaths themselves, families have been mistreated, no investigation has been initiated, international protocols have not been applied, and this has occurred with the complicity of other institutions such as the Attorney General's Office and the Ombudsman's Office."
Authorities gradually released 2,006 of the 2,220 people detained during the 2024 post-electoral protests, but simultaneously continued with repression and selective arrests. The Mission has documented at least 200 new detentions of critical voices, opposition figures or perceived as such.
A record number of foreign nationals have been detained and held under prolonged and strict incommunicado detention, in violation of international law. This amounts to enforced disappearances, some lasting for more than six months.
The Fact-Finding Mission's report also reveals that at least 220 children, between 13 and 17 years old, were detained as part of this pattern of repression following the 28 July 2024 elections. During their detention, and without regard to their age or best interests, they were subjected to incommunicado detention, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, acts of sexual violence, and violations of of due process guarantees Four adolescents are still being held in the states of La Guaira and Lara.
"Detentions in 2025 continued against opposition members or those perceived as such, just like in 2024, with arrests carried out without legal basis or judicial warrants, frequently by masked individuals without official identification. Criminal cases continue to be fabricated, and the principles of a fair trial are gravely violated with total impunity and the complicity of the judiciary," stressed Francisco Cox, expert of the Fact-Finding Mission. "Given the submission of the judiciary to the executive, the only hope for obtaining justice for victims in Venezuela lies with the international community."
Security forces used plastic bags to suffocate detainees and subjected them to beatings, kicks, punches, or blows with bats, regardless of their age or gender. Acts of sexual torture were also committed, including threats of rape and the use of electric shocks to the genitals. Courts ignored complaints about these acts, as did the Ombudsman's Office and the Attorney General's Office, which did not initiate any investigation.
The State's repressive machinery continues to suffocate Venezuelan civil society, whether or not aligned with the opposition. The legal framework adopted in recent months, through the "NGO Financing Law" and the "Simón Bolívar Law," has forced many organizations to limit their programs or even shut them down. The disproportionate measures and sanctions contained in these laws, as well as the highly discretionary power they grant to the authorities, makes these laws further instruments of the State's repressive apparatus.
"The evidence obtained by the Fact-Finding Mission during this investigative cycle confirms that the crime of persecution on political grounds continues to be committed in Venezuela, with no national authority demonstrating the will to prevent, prosecute, or punish the serious human rights violations that amount to this international crime," concluded Marta Valiñas.
