As countries around the world look to Venezuela for oil, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) announced last week that the country would be scrutinized at the forum. The council’s oral update exercise would give member states the opportunity to discuss the country’s ongoing human rights crises, such as the crackdown on dissent, the humanitarian crisis, and the migration crisis.
Members of the forum were urged to “intensify pressure on Venezuelan authorities” to end their systematic persecution of civil society activists and journalists, among others. “Member states should also call for free and fair elections in Venezuela, as well as the implementation of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Fact-Finding Mission’s recommendations,” the statement said.
What’s going on in Venezuela?
The sequence of events began in April 2013, when then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died of cancer, and his preferred successor, Nicolas Maduro, defeated Henrique Capriles, the candidate of the opposition alliance, the Democratic Unity Roundtable, in the presidential election (MUD).
Venezuela was in a state of economic decline, inflation, and widespread public insecurity in January 2014, as global oil prices plummeted. The Exit campaign was started by a group of opposition leaders who wanted to oust the incumbent President. Protests in the streets erupted as well. Security forces used excessive force against unarmed protestors and bystanders, according to the UNHRC. Furthermore, government forces tolerated and, in some cases, directly collaborated with armed pro-government gangs who attacked protestors.
In December 2014, the agency reported that inflation had reached 63.4 percent. The constantly deteriorating economic situation heightened tensions and political opposition on a regular basis.
Elections in 2015 and judicial appointments: In the National Assembly elections, the opposition coalition won two-thirds of the seats for the first time in 16 years. However, before the new legislators took office in January 2016, the outgoing regime quickly appointed 13 judges and 21 alternates to the Supreme Court, all of whom were loyalists to the ruling party.
According to AFP, the Supreme Court prevented four opposition leaders from taking their National Assembly seats in early 2016, effectively eliminating the supermajority. As a result, the MUD was unable to make key political appointments or replace Supreme Court judges. Snatching the National Assembly’s powers: In March 2016, the MUD attempted but failed to depose President Maduro before his term ended in 2019.
In March 2017, the Supreme Court announced that it would take over the National Assembly’s legislative powers because the latter was allegedly continuing to disobey the court’s decision regarding the participation of certain parliamentarians. Following public outcry, the court reversed itself on key aspects of the decision.
Mr. Maduro issued a decree in May calling for the formation of a Constituent Assembly “with the goal of transforming the state, creating a new legal system, and rewriting the Constitution.” The National Constituent Assembly assumed all legislative functions after a largely secret public vote.
According to the Venezuelan Observatory for Social Conflict, there were 9,787 protests in 2017, the most since 2014. Between April and the end of July, 69 percent of these protests took place. Venezuela’s 2018 Presidential Elections: In 2018, talks between the Venezuelan government and the MUD broke down.
The presidential elections were postponed from December to May that year by the National Electoral Council. Mr. Maduro’s six-year term as president was renewed with a landslide victory in elections boycotted by opposition parties. According to the UNHRC’s fact-finding report, the total turnout was 46.02 percent, which was significantly lower than in 2013.
Mr. Maduro was sworn in for the second time as President of Venezuela in January 2019.
However, in the same month, National Assembly President Juan Guaidó declared himself “interim President” until fair elections could be held, citing certain constitutional provisions. The relevant constitutional provisions stated that if the President was unable to serve, the National Assembly would take over as President.
Recognition
In accordance with the Venezuelan Constitution, the US recognizes interim President Juan Guaidó and considers 2015 democratically elected Venezuelan National Assembly, which he currently leads, to be the “only legitimate federal institution.”
According to the US Department of State, “Maduro, who was not re-elected in free and fair elections, clings to power through the subversion of democratic institutions, election manipulation, and force.” The European Union, the Organization of American States, the Lime Group, and the International Group, among others, have issued statements condemning the “fraudulent” parliamentary elections held in 2020, according to the department.
Mr. Maduro was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in 2017, and the Department of Justice charged him with narco-terrorism and drug trafficking in 2020.
How bad is the situation?
Globally, there are more than 6 million refugees and migrants from Venezuela, according to the Council’s Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela. Around 5 million of these people live in Latin American and Caribbean countries.
Many Venezuelan refugees, according to the UN Refugee Agency, lack documentation or permission to stay in neighboring countries on a regular basis, denying them access to basic rights. “This exposes them to labor and sexual exploitation, human trafficking, violence, discrimination, and xenophobia,” it continued.
Security agencies and armed pro-government groups facilitated the Venezuelan government’s crackdown on dissent, according to the UNHRC’s latest statement, which included extrajudicial killings, short-term enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and torture. According to the UNHRC statement, one out of every three Venezuelans is food insecure.
Measles, diphtheria, malaria, and tuberculosis have all increased in the country since 2016. Individuals have been forced to stop taking antiretroviral (ARV) medicines due to a lack of antiretroviral (ARV) medicines, according to the Council.
Venezuela was ranked 180 out of 195 countries in the 2019 Global Health Security Index as the country least prepared to stop an epidemic from spreading. “Overcrowding in low-income areas and prisons, as well as generalized limited access to water in hospitals and homes, makes it likely that the new coronavirus will rapidly spread throughout the country,” the Human Rights organization predicted in 2020.