Amnesty International published new research today exposing the arbitrary detention, torture, ill treatment, and gross violations of the right to a fair trial of six children in Venezuela committed between July 29 and 31, during the post-electoral crackdown on dissent by Nicolas Maduro’s government.
Four months on, at least 198 children remain subjected to either unfair detention, trumped up criminal charges, or the serious mental and physical consequences of abuse perpetrated by the Venezuelan authorities. In light of this situation, Amnesty International Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, said:
“When it comes to protecting and respecting human rights, we have come to expect the worst from Nicolas Maduro’s government. Detaining, torturing, prosecuting, and punishing children crosses a line no state should ever cross. We demand the immediate and unconditional release and redress for all children currently suffering the endless cruelty of the Venezuelan authorities.
“It is unconscionable that almost 200 children are now among the thousands of victims of Nicolas Maduro’s decade-long policy of repression and persecution. While dozens remain unfairly detained in inhumane conditions, others have been conditionally released but continue to be subjected to trumped up criminal prosecutions. The stories we have heard are just heartbreaking. All of these children will have to deal with the unimaginable scars of their ordeal for years to come.
“These violations and crimes against minors fall squarely within broader patterns of widespread and systematic violations of the rights to personal integrity and liberty, and to a fair trial perpetrated by the Maduro government. As Amnesty International and other civil society organizations expose new and darker depths of these abuses of power, states around the world must join the global outcry and demand respect for human rights in Venezuela, beginning with the rights of children. They should also support -publicly, privately, and financially- the ongoing investigation by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, any and all criminal investigations under the principle of universal jurisdiction, and the rigorous scrutiny by the UN Fact-Finding Mission.”
Background information:
Venezuela has been suffering a deep and multidimensional human rights crisis for at least ten years. In this time, Amnesty International has denounced grave human rights violations and also crimes under international law, including crimes against humanity, and an ongoing complex humanitarian emergency, both of which have forced over 25% of the country’s population to flee abroad.
Amnesty International’s latest research exposes a particularly alarming element of the most recent government crackdown on dissent following protests against the proclamation of Nicolas Maduro as the winner of the elections on July 28. Following the presidential election and the announcement of the contested and unpublished results, Venezuelan authorities have increased their policy of repression on a widespread scale. In the first month after the election, authorities carried out over 2,000 arrests, according to official figures, adding to the hundreds already arbitrarily detained since before July 28. All these arrests and ongoing detentions are presumed to be arbitrary and part of the Maduro government’s longstanding policy of repression against any perception of dissent.
As well as this unprecedented rise in politically motivated arbitrary detentions, including not just children but also people living with disabilities, the crackdown also included unlawful killings, further credible reports of torture, enforced disappearances, widespread attacks on civil society, reprisals against human rights defenders, and gross violations of fair trial guarantees.
The UN independent, international Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela has thoroughly documented hundreds of cases of extrajudicial executions; enforced disappearances; arbitrary detentions; and torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment committed in the country since 2014; as well as the ways in which the justice system serves as a tool for the government’s policy of repression. Its 2024 report concluded that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that the crime of persecution on political grounds has been committed” in the past year.
Since November 2021, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is conducting a criminal investigation into the situation in Venezuela, focused on the “[c]rimes against humanity of deprivation of liberty or other serious deprivation of physical liberty (…); torture (…); rape and/or other forms of sexual violence of comparable severity (…); and politically motivated persecution against persons detained (…), which were committed since at least April 2017, by members of the State security forces, civil authorities and pro-government persons (or groups called “collectives”).
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