By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) committed serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity over more than a decade in targeting political opponents, often with impunity, a U.N. Fact-Finding Mission found on Thursday.
The independent mission’s latest report details GNB involvement in acts that may constitute crimes against humanity, including arbitrary detentions, sexual violence, and torture during protest crackdowns and targeted political persecution since 2014 under President Nicolas Maduro.
Victims were selected for perceived opposition to the government, the report stated.
“The facts we have documented show the role of the GNB in a pattern of systematic and coordinated repression against opponents or those perceived as such, which has continued for more than a decade,” said Marta Valinas, head of the fact-finding mission.
The report comes as tensions have been rising for weeks between the Washington and Caracas, with U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly raising the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela to combat drug smuggling, which it calls “narco-terrorism”.
Maduro says Trump is trying to overthrow him to gain access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
The report said it had reasonable grounds to believe GNB played a central role in the crime against humanity of political persecution, including the 2024 post-election “knock knock” operation – sudden raids on critics’ homes that ensnared ordinary citizens in poor neighbourhoods.
Members of Maduro’s administration described a previous U.N. report containing similar accusations as being “plagued with falsehoods.”
Under Venezuela’s “national security” doctrine, the GNB expanded into social control and internal repression, under a centralised chain of command overseen by the president and Commander-in-Chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, the report noted. It documented sexual violence in GNB detention facilities, beatings during arrests, and torture.
“The torture, ill-treatment, and acts of sexual violence we have verified – including assaults and rape – were not isolated incidents. They form part of a pattern of abuse used to punish and break victims,” said Valinas.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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