Venezuela retains repressive apparatus, UN experts say

UN investigators said Wednesday that Venezuela has maintained a “repressive apparatus” responsible for illegal detentions and disappearances despite human rights improvements since the United States detained longtime leader Nicolas Maduro.

The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela said it had seen “a significant decline in long-term detentions and related enforced disappearances” since US forces seized Maduro on January 3. It said many political detainees had been released and there was greater scope for political gatherings.

But the mission said those changes had not been matched by institutional reforms needed to ensure sustained improvement.

“Numerous laws used to criminalise dissent remain in force,” the mission said before presenting its report to the UN Human Rights Council on Friday. It said the country's intelligence services and security forces retained essentially the same structures, policies and practices.

The investigators said no moves had been made to dismantle the “colectivos”, pro-government armed groups they called a “central component” of the state's repressive apparatus. They also said at least 19 officials accused of violations remained in work.

“The reduction in some of the harshest forms of repression is notable, but it does not yet amount in any way to a transformation of the system that made them possible,” mission leader Sofia Macher said. She described the improvement as “fragile and reversible”.

Maduro, 63, is in detention in New York facing charges of trafficking tonnes of cocaine into the United States.

The ruling Chavismo party is due to start a new round of talks with opposition groups this week on the post-Maduro transition. After talks last month, the Venezuelan presidency announced the release of 131 political prisoners, though NGOs were able to confirm about 80 releases and estimated that more than 300 people remained detained.

About 100 relatives of political prisoners marched on the Miraflores palace of acting leader Delcy Rodriguez last Friday in a rare protest demanding more releases.