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The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) today condemned the intensification of repression in Venezuela following the July 28 presidential election, a move that has been questioned by the international community.
Roberta Clark, president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, presented a report on the human rights situation in the country to the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington.
The meeting was called at the request of Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the United States and Uruguay.
In the report, Clark condemned the repression that followed the presidential election – in which electoral authorities declared Nicolás Maduro the winner – as “mirroring a pattern that the IACHR had already observed during the 2014 and 2017 protests”.
The IACHR also said it observed “arbitrary use of force” that left at least 23 people dead and dozens injured, as well as arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, and the detention of more than 1,600 people, including 100 minors.
After the report was submitted, the country that convened the meeting intervened, while the rest – such as Brazil, Mexico or Colombia, which had taken a more lenient stance towards Caracas – decided not to speak.
At the public meeting, Paraguayan ambassador to the OAS Raúl Florentín said “the international community cannot ignore these serious complaints.”
Costa Rican representative Milagro Martínez defended Venezuela’s “fair and good-faith transition process” led by all parties, while Peruvian Ambassador José Luis Sadoun denounced the Caribbean country for “everything being a fake.”
For his part, U.S. Ambassador Frank Mora said there is “a persistent climate of fear” surrounding Maduro’s government and its representatives, which “intensified” after the July 28 election.
Mora said the “United States expresses its solidarity with the Venezuelan people, who have expressed their desire for change and a return to democratic norms,” and condemned the “horrific scenes in the field of human rights.”
OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro has renewed his request to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue charges and arrest warrants against Venezuelan government officials.
Two weeks ago, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States unanimously adopted a resolution calling on Venezuelan authorities to promptly release election records.
The Venezuelan government has not been a member of the OAS since 2017, when it decided to withdraw from the group because Venezuela considered the Washington-based organization to be interfering in its internal affairs.
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