The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela warned this Wednesday that the state structures and institutions linked to repression and human rights violations in the country remain "intact," despite the "limited" improvements recorded over the past year.
"As long as the repressive structures are not dismantled, judicial independence is not guaranteed, and those responsible for human rights violations are not properly investigated and sanctioned, any opening will remain fragile and reversible. Venezuelans deserve real and significant changes in human rights, not tentative and incomplete advances," emphasized the president of the body, Sofía Macher.
These assessments are included in a new report made public on the day by the Mission itself, which notes a "significant decrease in long-term detentions and enforced disappearances" following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro in the United States attack on Caracas on January 3rd.
The document details that the Mission has identified around twenty officials allegedly involved in "serious violations" of human rights, who "continue to hold, or have been reassigned to key positions" after the supposed transfer of power to the then 'number two' of the president, the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez.
The report also notes a "reduction in some of the most severe forms of repression," including the release of hundreds of political prisoners and a somewhat more favorable environment for holding protests and public gatherings, although it emphasizes that "impunity for past crimes persists."
According to the Mission, these partial changes "have not been accompanied by the necessary institutional reforms to ensure a significant and sustained improvement in the human rights situation" and, in fact, the body has investigated 64 new cases of torture after January 3rd.
The UN Mission also denounces that norms used to "criminalize dissent" remain in force, while security forces and intelligence services "essentially maintain the same structures, policies, and practices."
The report also insists on the urgency of "disarming or dismantling" the community groups that have been "a permanent source of intimidation and violence" and on which Rodríguez's Executive has not acted so far.