Rights group urges US and other governments to hold Venezuela's Maduro
accountable for repression
[April 30, 2025]
By REGINA GARCIA CANO
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A global human rights watchdog on Wednesday urged the
United States and other governments to bolster their support for people
seeking democratic change in Venezuela and to hold President Nicolás
Maduro accountable for the crackdown on dissent he intensified after the
country’s presidential election last year.
Human Rights Watch specifically called on the U.S. to consider imposing
additional sanctions on Venezuelan government officials and members of
state security forces. HRW also called for sanctions on ruling
party-loyal armed groups linked to the widespread rights violations that
followed the July 28 vote that Maduro claims to have won despite
credible evidence to the contrary.
At the same time, the organization recommended the U.S. rescind an
executive order President Donald Trump signed in February imposing
sanctions on the International Criminal Court over investigations of
Israel. The order, according to the watchdog, could affect an ongoing
investigation by the court’s prosecutor into possible crimes against
humanity committed in Venezuela.
“While the Trump administration has not specifically objected to the
Court’s engagement with the situation in Venezuela, the sanctions
program appears designed in part to chill broader cooperation with the
ICC and intimidate Court officials, and will likely affect the rights of
victims globally,” Human Rights Watch said in a report published
Wednesday.
The report is the latest work from human rights advocates documenting
Venezuela’s post-election repression campaign against members of the
political opposition, protesters, bystanders and others. Their findings
have implicated state security forces and ruling party-loyal armed
groups in killings, torture and other abuses across the country during
and after demonstrations that followed the election.
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, stacked with government
loyalists, declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 election. But
unlike in previous contests, electoral authorities did not provide
detailed vote counts to back the announced result.
The opposition, however, collected tally sheets from 85% of electronic
voting machines and posted them online — showing its candidate, Edmundo
González, had won by a more than a 2-1 margin. U.N. experts and the
U.S.-based Carter Center, both invited by Maduro’s government to observe
the election, have said the tally sheets published by the opposition are
legitimate.
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Police on a motorcycle leave the Boleita National Police
detention center where some people arrested during recent protests
against the official results of the presidential election are being
held, in Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias
Delacroix, File)
More than 2,000 people were detained in the days after the election
and hundreds were charged with counts of terrorism and incitement to
hatred. Many detainees, including members of the opposition and
foreign nationals, were subjected to enforced disappearances.
Most of those detainees have been released, according to Venezuela’s
Attorney General’s Office. But dozens of people affiliated with the
opposition remain behind bars.
Citing figures from opposition party Vente Venezuela, Wednesday’s
report shows that 285 people affiliated with opposition parties were
taken into custody between November 2023 — the month after Maduro’s
opponents held a presidential primary election — and April 2025. As
of April 10, 100 of them had been released.
HRW in its report urged foreign governments to engage with the
Maduro government "as leverage to secure verifiable, even if
incremental, progress on human rights.” That includes the release of
people arbitrarily detained and subjected to enforced
disappearances, the disclosure of all detainees’ whereabouts, and
the closure of cases based on fabricated violations.
The group further called on the U.S. government to again make funds
available for humanitarian and human rights programs in Venezuela.
The watchdog noted that Trump administration decisions to end
foreign assistance across the world have impacted organizations
“playing key roles in Venezuela, including independent journalists
and those providing legal and other support to people who have been
arbitrarily detained.”
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