WASHINGTON- The new annual report on “Crimes Against Humanity 2023-2024”, presented at the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC, grows in volume with each passing year as it documents the increase in cases of rights violations human rights, characterizing them as a systematic and generalized repression, carried out under the impassive gaze of the Venezuelan State.
The report, which contains six chapters, includes the recent revelations of the Chilean prosecutor, Héctor Barrios, who is handling the case of the kidnapping and subsequent execution of the former Venezuelan political prisoner, Lt. Ronald Ojeda, asylum in Chile since 2017 and who was taken from his home in the early hours of February 21, 2024, to be allegedly murdered by the criminal group “Tren de Aragua”, which according to Barrios, was a planned political crime from Venezuela.
In addition, the investigation mentions the arbitrary arrests orchestrated by the Venezuelan prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, against countless citizens, criminalizing their profession or simply for being opponents or carrying out political activism; a practice that has been intensifying as the date of the presidential elections scheduled for July 28 approaches.
“Between the OAS and the Casla Center there is a memorandum of understanding in a framework of cooperation in which the Center provides the OAS with information on cases of crimes against humanity in the hemisphere. These contributions are relevant to the panel of independent experts who analyze the cases and For us, the systematization that Casla does is important,” OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, who was present during the event, told Diario Las Américas.
The director of the CASLA Center, Tamara Sujú, told this newspaper that they hope this new report, which has already been delivered to the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, Netherlands, adds support to the complaints made previously.
“This report talks about new findings such as: new patterns of torture, new victims, we denounce a clandestine unit of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) directed directly by the President of the Republic,” Sujú also pointed out that the report includes the denounces Cuba before the ICC, for crimes against humanity against Venezuela.
According to the report, a high-ranking Venezuelan military witness classified the Cuban penetration into three stages: Positioning in public, non-armed institutions; Positioning in the country’s military and police institutions, Popular integration and formation of national groups under the schemes of the Cuban revolution.
The Casla Institute obtained on an exclusive basis for the report-Complaint delivered to the ICC, eight agreements signed between Cuba and Venezuela on May 26, 2008. The first three have to do with the intelligence and counterintelligence part and how the Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) became “the torturing monster in charge of the Commander in Chief of the National Armed Forces and the President of the Republic,” according to the report.
What do you expect to happen with the delivery of this new report?
“We hope for justice. That the investigation currently being carried out by the ICC into the human rights violations committed by Venezuela, advances.”
How is the situation compared to the previous report?
“It is worse. In terms of repression, persecution, imprisonment. The regime is unleashed with a view to the presidential elections,” said the human rights defender.
“As for how advanced the case is before the ICC, it is being determined who is responsible in the Court’s Prosecutor’s Office, so it is important that the victims know that the case continues,” said Sujú, clarifying that the timing of the international justice are different from those of a national court given that “in this case senior officials will be tried.”
According to information from the OAS, this is the seventh report of this type that the CASLA Institute presents to the regional organization with the objective of denouncing “before our continent and the entire world the crimes against humanity that occur in Venezuela.”
The report explains the ongoing investigation process at the International Criminal Court, emphasizing the demand for justice by the victims and their families.
The patterns of Cuban interference in this repressive system are also detailed and testimonies from military and civilians in addition to the victims are presented as evidence.
“We have dedicated ourselves not only to listening to the victims and compiling the cases and reporting them, we also investigate, for example, what are the chains of command of the culprits, who are ultimately responsible and particularly in these last two years, we have supplemented that information.
As in previous reports, this one also presents evidence about the torments to which Venezuelans are subjected every day under the regime of Nicolás Maduro.
The compilation details the patterns of torture: temporary forced disappearance; violation of the right to defense, Impediment by trusted lawyers from requesting investigation proceedings; In several cases the intelligence agencies have gone to look for relatives of the detainees; subjection to physical torture and psychological torture, death threats; threats against families, transfers to clandestine torture centers, sexual and gender violence and provides evidence of the close coordination that exists between President Maduro and the chains of command of the security agencies.
In this scheme, the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) stands out, responsible among other agencies for the torture and abuse of detainees.
The report also mentions the “Basic instruction guide on the progressive and differentiated use of the police force for aspiring detectives” used by SEBIN.
Source: With information from Sonia Schott
