The United Nations office for human rights released a report Friday severely condemning serious human rights abuses and an absence of the rule of law in Venezuela and said there was a strong case to bring the country before the International Criminal Court.

The scathing analysis from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights accused the authorities in the restive South American nation of failing to bring perpetrators responsible for human rights violations, such as the use of excessive force and the extrajudicial killing of protesters, to justice. </s> Security forces in Venezuela have carried out hundreds of unjustified killings without any apparent consequences, the United Nations has said in a new report, drawing a rejection from government officials in Caracas..

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday that Venezuelan officers accused of questionable killings appear to be evading any charges.

It called on the government to bring perpetrators to justice and said it was sending its report to the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose prosecutor opened a preliminary investigation in February.

"The rule of law is virtually absent in Venezuela," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said in the report. "The impunity must end."

The government of President Nicolas Maduro rejected the report as "grotesque media farce", which omits information officials in Caracas provided to investigators.

The findings are part of an international push against the country led by officials in the United States, the ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.

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"Venezuela reiterates its unrelenting commitment to human rights set out in Venezuela's Constitution and international treaties," the statement added.

The UN report cited "credible, shocking" accounts of extrajudicial killings of young men during crime-fighting operations in poor neighbourhoods conducted without arrest warrants. It said security forces would tamper with the scene so that there appeared to have been an exchange of fire.

The report also said that between 2015 and 2017, some 357 officers were placed under investigation stemming from 505 killings during supposed neighbourhood raids.

But Venezuela's attorney general, Luisa Ortega, who was critical of Maduro, was replaced last August, and no more information about the prosecutions became public.

#Venezuela: "Given that the State appears neither able nor willing to prosecute serious #HumanRights violations, there is a strong case to be made for deeper involvement by the #ICC" – UN Human Rights Chief Zeid. Read: https://t.co/omAzVKLfg8 pic.twitter.com/hkHJfRd2We — UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) June 22, 2018

Critics say Maduro has used increasingly authoritarian tactics as the OPEC nation's economy has spiralled deeper into recession and hyperinflation, increasing discontent and prompting hundreds of thousands to emigrate in the past year.

About 125 people died in anti-government protests last year.

Security forces were allegedly responsible for killing at least 46 of them, UN rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a news briefing, adding: "Evidence has reportedly disappeared from case files."

Al-Hussein called on the UN Human Rights Council on Monday to set up an international commission of inquiry into alleged violations in Venezuela - one of its 47 member states.

"The repression is still there; it's more targeted," Tamara Taraciuk, senior researcher for the United States at Human Rights Watch, a US-based rights group, told Al Jazeera

"We've seen increasing participation of intelligence services that go and participate in the arrests - and in the abuses against detainees, including cases of torture," added Taraciuk.

Maduro has cast the release of dozens of opposition members as a peace gesture following his controversial re-election to a new six-year term last month, which was condemned by most Western nations as an undemocratic farce.

His government denies the detainees are political prisoners.

Venezuela is suffering from an economic collapse that includes chronic shortages of food and medicine and huge inflation numbers.

Maduro blames an "economic war" directed by the opposition and the US - which has imposed new sanctions on Venezuela's oil industry. </s> The United Nations human rights chief called yesterday for an international investigation into atrocities in Venezuela, blasting the government's chronic refusal to probe security officers over the alleged killings of civilians.

"The failure to hold security forces accountable for such serious human rights violations suggests that the rule of law is virtually absent in Venezuela," said Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, as his office launched a new report on the crisis-stricken country.

Zeid asked the UN Human Rights Council to set up its highest-level probe - a Commission of Inquiry - for Venezuela and said the International Criminal Court may need to get further involved.

The Hague-based ICC in February opened a preliminary investigation into crimes allegedly committed by the security forces during a wave of protests against President Nicolas Maduro.

The UN rights office, which examined Maduro's crackdown on protesters in a report last year, said its new findings relate mostly to alleged abuses committed during purported anti-crime operations.

The report highlights alleged extra-judicial killings by officers involved in the Operations for the Liberation of the People.

It said those officers, supposedly tasked with fighting crime, may have been responsible for more than 500 killings between July 2015 and March 2017, largely carried out in poor neighbourhoods. </s> GENEVA, (Reuters) – Venezuelan security forces suspected of killing hundreds of demonstrators and alleged criminals enjoy immunity from prosecution, indicating that the rule of law is “virtually absent” in the country, the United Nations said yesterday.

The U.N. human rights office called on the government to bring perpetrators to justice and said it was sending its report to the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose prosecutor opened a preliminary investigation in February.

The U.N. report cited “credible, shocking” accounts of extrajudicial killings of young men during crime-fighting operations in poor neighbourhoods conducted without arrest warrants. Security forces would tamper with the scene so that there appeared to have been an exchange of fire, it said.

There was no immediate response from the government of President Nicolas Maduro to the report.

Critics say Maduro has used increasingly authoritarian tactics as the OPEC nation’s economy has spiralled deeper into recession and hyperinflation, fuelling discontent and prompting hundreds of thousands to emigrate in the past year.

About 125 people died in anti-government protests last year.

Security forces were allegedly responsible for killing at least 46 of them, U.N. rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a news briefing, adding: “Evidence has reportedly disappeared from case files.”

Maduro says the opposition protests were aimed at overthrowing him and accuses the United States of directing an “economic war” against Venezuela.

“The failure to hold security forces accountable for such serious human rights violations suggests that the rule of law is virtually absent in Venezuela,” said Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. “The impunity must end.”

Zeid called on the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday to set up an international commission of inquiry into alleged violations in Venezuela — one of its 47 member states.

“The time has come for the Council to use its voice to speak out before this tragic downward spiral becomes irreversible,” Leila Swan of Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Friday.

The unpopular Maduro has cast the release of dozens of opposition members as a peace gesture following his re-election to a new six-year term last month, which was condemned by most Western nations as an undemocratic farce. His government denies the detainees are political prisoners.

Venezuela is suffering from an economic collapse that includes chronic shortages of food and medicine and annualised inflation around 25,000 percent. Maduro blames an “economic war” directed by the opposition and the United States — which has imposed new sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry.

Under previous attorney-general Luisa Ortega Diaz, who fled Venezuela last year, 357 security officers were believed to be under investigation for crime-related killings, but there has been no public information since then, the report said. </s> Venezuelan security forces suspected of killing hundreds of demonstrators and alleged criminals enjoy immunity from prosecution, indicating that the rule of law is “virtually absent” in the country, the United Nations said on Friday.

In a report, the U.N. human rights office called on the government to bring perpetrators to justice, citing what it said were shocking accounts of extrajudicial killings of young men during crime-fighting operations conducted without arrest warrants in poor neighborhoods.

Critics say President Nicolas Maduro has resorted to increasingly authoritarian tactics as the OPEC nation’s economy has spiraled deeper into recession and hyperinflation, fuelling discontent and prompting hundreds of thousands to emigrate in the past year. </s> GENEVA (Reuters) - Venezuelan security forces suspected of killing hundreds of demonstrators and alleged criminals enjoy immunity from prosecution, indicating that the rule of law is “virtually absent” in the country, the United Nations said on Friday.

In a report, the U.N. human rights office called on the government to bring perpetrators to justice, citing what it said were shocking accounts of extrajudicial killings of young men during crime-fighting operations conducted without arrest warrants in poor neighbourhoods.

Critics say President Nicolas Maduro has resorted to increasingly authoritarian tactics as the OPEC nation’s economy has spiralled deeper into recession and hyperinflation, fuelling discontent and prompting hundreds of thousands to emigrate in the past year.

About 125 people died in anti-government protests last year.

Maduro says the opposition protests were aimed at overthrowing him and accuses the United States of directing an “economic war” against Venezuela.

“The failure to hold security forces accountable for such serious human rights violations suggests that the rule of law is virtually absent in Venezuela,” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement. “The impunity must end.”

Zeid, addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday, called on the 47-member forum to set up a commission of inquiry into alleged violations in Venezuela - one of its member states.

“The time has come for the Council to use its voice to speak out before this tragic downward spiral becomes irreversible,” Leila Swan of Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Friday.

The unpopular Maduro has cast the release of dozens of opposition members as a peace gesture following his re-election to a new six-year term last month, which was condemned by most Western nations as an undemocratic farce. His government denies the detainees are political prisoners.

Venezuela is suffering from an economic collapse that includes chronic shortages of food and medicine and annualised inflation around 25,000 percent. Maduro blames an “economic war” directed by the opposition and the United States - which has imposed new sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry.

Under the previous attorney-general - Luisa Ortega Diaz, who fled the country last year - 357 security officers were believed to be under investigation for crime-related killings, but there has been no public information since then, the U.N. report said.

A key obstacle was that the Bureau for scientific, criminal and forensic investigations that is in charge of the inquiries is also “allegedly responsible for most of the killings,” it said. </s> Video: Attacks on Civilians in Border Area in Columbia Armed groups have committed egregious abuses against Colombian and Venezuelan civilians as they fight for control in Catatumbo, northeastern Colombia, Human Rights Watch said. (Bogotá) – Armed groups have committed egregious abuses against Colombian and Venezuelan civilians as they fight for control in Catatumbo, northeastern Colombia, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 64-page report, “The War in Catatumbo: Abuses by Armed Groups Against Civilians Including Venezuelan Exiles in Northeastern Colombia,” documents killings, disappearances, sexual violence, recruitment of children as soldiers, and forced displacement by the National Liberation Army (ELN), Popular Liberation Army (EPL), and a group that emerged from the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Armed groups use threats to gain control, including against community leaders and human rights defenders, some of whom have been killed. Venezuelans who fled the humanitarian emergency in their country are among the victims.

“As armed groups fight for the void left by the FARC in Catatumbo, hundreds of civilians have been caught in the conflict,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Venezuelans who are fleeing the humanitarian emergency in their own country are being caught in this nexus of war and desperate flight.”

Violence and abuses have increased in Catatumbo since the FARC demobilized in 2017 as part of its peace accord with the government. The Colombian government is falling short on its human rights obligations to protect civilians from abuses and to provide victims with redress.

In April 2019, Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 80 people, including abuse victims, their relatives, community leaders, church representatives, human rights officials, local authorities, justice officials, and members of humanitarian and human rights organizations working in the area. Interviews were conducted in Catatumbo, as well as some in Cúcuta, the capital of North Santander province, and some by telephone.

Human Rights Watch also reviewed official reports and statistics, publications by nongovernmental and international organizations, and written testimony given to government officials by almost 500 victims of abuses committed in the context of the armed conflict. The total number of cases is most likely higher than that recorded by government authorities, given victims’ fear of retaliation by armed groups for exposing abuses, or Venezuelan victims’ fear of deportation.

“Those who are part of the conflict do not suffer what we, as the people in the countryside …, suffer,” said a teacher in a rural school who lost his foot when a landmine exploded just meters from the school grounds. “We are the ones paying for a conflict that they started.”

Limited immigration controls and better-paying jobs attract Venezuelans to the Catatumbo borderlands. At least 25,000 Venezuelans live in Catatumbo, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Desperate and often undocumented Venezuelans have been among those forcibly displaced and killed, and Venezuelan children have been recruited as soldiers.

In Catatumbo, more than 40,000 people have been displaced from their homes since 2017 – the majority during 2018 – according to government statistics. Some have been forcibly displaced. People have fled after armed groups threatened them for allegedly cooperating with competing armed groups or the government. People have also fled after being threatened for refusing to join an armed group.

OCHA reported that 109 people it considered civilians were killed by armed groups in 2018 alone. Armed groups have killed nine human rights defenders and community leaders, according to investigations by Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

“Community leaders play a fundamental role to give voice to abuse victims and help reinstate the rule of law in remote areas of Colombia,” Vivanco said. “The Colombian government should increase its efforts to protect them and ensure that those responsible for these murders are held to account.”

Armed groups have been implicated in kidnappings and disappearances, as well as rape and other sexual violence.

Children as young as 12 have been forced to join an armed group after members threaten to kill them or their families, or they join for money. Human Rights Watch reviewed testimony in a dozen cases in which families fled after an armed group threatened or attempted to recruit a child.

Armed groups are also reportedly planting antipersonnel landmines in rural areas of Catatumbo, where the FARC had also previously used landmines. Four people have died and 65 have been injured by antipersonnel landmines in Catatumbo since 2017.

Colombian authorities have thus far failed to ensure justice for abuses committed by armed groups. As of April 2019, there were over 770 cases related to murders that occurred in Catatumbo since 2017. There have been convictions in 61 cases. Only two armed group members have been charged with murder, according to the Attorney General’s Office. The office has not charged anyone for threats, recruitment of children as soldiers, or enforced disappearances, which, under Colombian law, may be committed by both state and private actors. Two armed group members have been charged for forced displacement, but no one has been convicted; 480 cases remain pending.

Assistance to the displaced, provided for under Colombian law, has been slow and insufficient, said humanitarian workers in the region. Hundreds of people have lived in temporary shelters improvised by communities. Some shelters lacked furniture or running water. Authorities have also failed to adequately address risks to human rights identified by the Human Rights Ombudsperson’s Office.

In October 2018, the Colombian government created a Rapid Deployment Force to increase the number of military officers in Catatumbo by 5,600. Residents, human rights officials, and humanitarian workers have reported abusive behavior by soldiers directed at civilians, including accusing them of being complicit with guerrilla groups and questioning them at military checkpoints, exposing them to retaliation by armed groups. In April 2019, a soldier killed a demobilized FARC member.

To comply with its obligations under international and Colombian law, the Colombian government should put in place human rights-respecting strategies for the military and police to protect civilians. It should provide further support to prosecutors investigating abuses by armed groups and seek international support to aid people who have been displaced. It should also carry out a comprehensive assessment of the number of Venezuelans living in Catatumbo and their needs, and ensure that all Venezuelans can work legally in Colombia, including in safer parts of the country.

“The government’s efforts to increase its presence in Catatumbo through deploying the military needs to go hand-in-hand with broader efforts – like support for criminal investigations and humanitarian assistance – to protect the rights of farmers and Venezuelan exiles there,” Vivanco said.

For selected cases documented by Human Rights Watch, see below.

Beatriz (pseudonym) was raped in mid-2017. That day, she was at her job as a cook for agricultural laborers. Her husband was working on the same farm. At around 5 p.m., a group of uniformed men, their faces hidden under balaclavas, arrived, shouting why “the fuck” hadn’t the couple left since they had been “warned.” They asked if anyone else was on the farm. Beatriz’s husband said no, to protect the other workers.

The guerrillas sent men to look. Four, who had the ELN logo on their clothes, stayed. Two of them sexually assaulted Beatriz as the others made her husband watch. Beatriz lost consciousness and woke up two hours later in her husband’s arms. They fled to a nearby city, and, she said, only reported the incident several months later because of the shame and psychological trauma.

Dalila (pseudonym) lived between two mountain ridges where armed groups operate. The groups often fight among themselves, she reported to authorities, and the walls of her house are full of holes from the shootouts. One afternoon in early 2018, three men arrived at her house. They were armed and wearing uniforms, but Dalila said she did not know to which group they belonged. They told her they were going to take her oldest children, who were 17 and 14. Dalila said she told them they would have to kill her first. The men said she had a few hours to leave. She sent her two sons to another municipality where her sister lived. Dalila went back to sell her animals and fled to a nearby city.

Alejandro Rodríguez (pseudonym), 34, is a primary teacher at a rural school in Catatumbo. Around 1 p.m. on February 5, 2019, Rodríguez went to look for a soccer ball that a student had kicked off school grounds, about 15 meters from where the students were playing. Rodríguez stepped on something that exploded, likely a landmine. Neighbors helped him get to the nearest town, several hours away. He lost his foot.

When we interviewed him in April, he said that nobody from the government had visited the area in the two months after the incident to see if there were other landmines near the school. He said he had moved to an urban area to receive medical treatment. In his rural community, he had heard shots nearly every day and children feared going to school, Rodríguez said.

Henry Pérez Ramírez, a 46-year-old community leader, went to check his crops early in the morning on January 26, 2016, and did not return, said his wife, Elibeth Murcia Castro. A man later told her that days before he had overheard Pérez Ramírez speaking on the phone with a FARC member. The FARC member had asked him questions about where the Colombian armed forces were operating and had requested a meeting on January 26.

Murcia Castro said Pérez Ramírez had previously received threats from the FARC member. She and her family desperately looked for him, and she filed complaints with judicial authorities and the Human Rights Ombudsperson’s Office, but his whereabouts remain unknown. “What I want the most is to find him,” she told us. “And not be like this, with this uncertainty, not knowing if he’s alive or if he’s dead.”

Enrique Pérez (pseudonym), 14, arrived with his mother in Catatumbo in February 2019. They left Trujillo state in Venezuela because, he said, his parents could no longer feed the family adequately. Some days, they only had one meal, and sometimes it was every other day. He had been a student in Venezuela but dropped out to work in the coca fields, under the blazing sun. At times, Venezuelans work only for a plate of food, he said. He said that he works alongside Colombian and Venezuelan children as young as 8, and that he would love to go back to school but must work. </s> The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has been urged to draw on his experience as a former Foreign Office human rights lawyer to press the legal case that the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro has systematically tortured its people.

The call was led by the prominent Venezuela human rights defender Tamara Sujú who visited London to persuade the UK to join six non-European countries in pressuring the international criminal court (ICC) to pursue a case against the Venezuelan leadership.

Raab worked as a lawyer for the FCO, including at the ICC in The Hague, from 2000 to 2006.

In theory the case could end with Maduro arraigned in front of the court, but progress with the ICC case has the potential to play into the various indirect talks currently under way between supporters of Maduro – who succeeded the leftwing Hugo Chavez as Venezuela’s president – and Juan Guaidó, the self-proclaimed interim leader recognised by most EU countries and backed by the US.

British backing for the ICC investigation would be a further blow for Maduro. The ICC referral was initially backed by Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Canada at the end of last year, becoming the first state referral to the ICC by other states.

The ICC launched a preliminary investigation in September 2018.

Sujú, executive director of the Casla Institute and a Guaidó supporter, said: “We need a European country, preferably Britain, with sufficiently solid institutions, a democratic tradition and commitment to human rights to join us in the ICC not just with words but to subscribe formally to the case.

“We also need Great Britain to impose personal and economic sanctions against the Maduro regime and to close their spaces.”

The Trump administration tightened economic sanctions against Maduro again this week.

Venezuela: UN report accuses Maduro of ‘gross violations’ against dissenters Read more

Sujú has compiled more than 600 detailed cases of alleged human rights abuses. Her critics say she is part of an army of Maduro opponents who use human rights to denounce the leftwing government.

An ICC case has four initial stages, including a case to answer, identification of the victims, assessment of whether the crimes are eligible as crimes against humanity and whether the government has sought to prosecute the cases.

Sujú’s chief claim is that the arrests of demonstrators and, increasingly, of figures in the military, are systematically directed by the Maduro government, indicating the leadership would have to face justice at the ICC.

Profile Who is Nicolás Maduro? Show Hide Political career Nicolás Maduro has ruled Venezuela without two of the greatest assets possessed by his mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chávez. He has not been lucky. And he has no charisma. Chávez enjoyed an oil bounty and sublime political talents that secured his power at home and reputation abroad. Maduro, in contrast, inherited a wobbling economy addicted to high oil prices and a system of authoritarian populism dependent on showmanship and patronage. Oil prices tumbled and Maduro proved to be a fumbling showman, exposing the financial ineptitude and ideological hollowness of the “Bolivarian revolution”. This could have doomed his presidency, which began in 2013 after Chávez died, but the former bus driver, a hulking bear of a man who rose up trade union ranks, turned out to be tenacious and ruthless. Born into a working class family in Caracas in 1962, he left school without graduating and drove buses for the Caracas metro. He became a union organiser and early supporter of Chávez, who, after leading a failed coup, led a leftwing coalition to an electoral landslide in 1998. Maduro was the speaker of the assembly before serving as Chávez’s foreign minister from 2006 to 2013, a visible if largely silent presence as the comandante held court on the world stage. Chávez anointed Maduro as his heir before succumbing to cancer. The story of his rule – and Venezuela’s agony – is a determination to keep power amid economic collapse, humanitarian disaster and international condemnation. Since January 2019 his presidency has been disputed, with Juan Guaidó being sworn in as interim president, and recognised as Venezuela’s ruler by some international powers. Crisis after crisis has buffeted his government – hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages, power blackouts, mass protests, drone attacks, defections, US-led sanctions – and Maduro has remained standing, resolute, implacable. It is a remarkable position for a man who, in a 2014 Guardian interview, described himself as a bit of a hippy and a fan of Led Zeppelin and John Lennon. “I never aspired to be president,” he said. “I always honour something that commander Chávez told us: that while we were in these posts we must be clothed in humility and understand that we are here to protect the man and woman of the streets.” Rory Carroll

“There are not random accidents of violence,” she said. “What has stood out is that they group masses of protesters 40 or 50 at the time, take them to the station and torture them as a group. We have cases where families were taken. They made the father watch as his child was tortured and then the child would watch his father be tortured. They tortured a mother and daughter, took off their clothes off before they applied electricity.”

She highlighted the death of the military captain Rafael Acosta Arévalo, who was arrested on 26 June and died three days later. At his military tribunal he was unable to stand, hear or understand what was happening and pleaded with his lawyer for help.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, has visited Venezuela to find political prisoners are tortured, including with electrical currents, simulated drowning, beatings and sexual violence, and is setting up a permanent mission. </s> The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has been urged to draw on his experience as a former Foreign Office human rights lawyer to press the legal case that the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro has systematically tortured its people.

The call was led by prominent Venezuela human rights defender Tamara Sujú who visited London to persuade the UK to join six non-European countries in pressuring the international criminal court (ICC) to pursue a case against the Venezuelan leadership.

Raab has also worked as a lawyer for the FCO, stationed from 2000 to 2006 in the Hague and the ICC.

In theory the case could end with Maduro arraigned in front of the court, but progress with the ICC case has the potential to play into the various indirect talks currently underway between supporters of Maduro – who succeeded the leftwing Hugo Chavez as Venezuela’s president – and Juan Guaidó, the self-proclaimed interim leader recognised by most EU countries and backed by the US.

British backing for the ICC investigation would be a further blow for Maduro. The ICC referral was initially backed by Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, and Canada at the end of last year, becoming the first state referral to the ICC by other states.

A preliminary investigation was launched by ICC in September 2018.

Sujú, executive director of the Casla Institute and a Guaidó supporter, said: “We need a European country, preferably Britain, with sufficiently solid institutions, a democratic tradition and commitment to human rights to join us in the ICC not just with words but to subscribe formally to the case.

“We also need Great Britain to impose personal and economic sanctions against the Maduro regime and to close their spaces”.

The Trump administration tightened economic sanctions against Maduro again this week.

Sujú has compiled over 600 detailed cases of human rights abuses. Her critics say she is part of an army of Maduro’s opponents that use human rights to denounce the leftwing government.

An ICC case has four initial stages, including a case to answer, identification of the victims, assessment of whether the crimes are eligible as crimes against humanity, and whether the government has sought to prosecute the cases.

Sujú’s chief claim is that the arrests of demonstrators, and increasingly figures in the military, are systematically directed by the Maduro government, indicating the leadership would have to face justice at the ICC.

“There are not random accidents of violence,” she said. “What has stood out is that they group masses of protestors 40 or 50 at the time, take them to the station and torture them as a group. We have cases where families were taken. They made the father watch as his child was tortured and then the child would watch his father be tortured. They tortured a mother and daughter take off their clothes off before they applied electricity.”

She highlighted the death of military captain Rafael Acosta Arévalo, who was arrested on 26 June and died three days later. At his military tribunal he was unable to stand, hear or understand what was happening and pleaded with his lawyer for help.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet has visited Venezuela to find political prisoners are tortured, including with electrical currents, simulated drowning, beatings and sexual violence, and is setting up a permanent mission.
The Argentine government says it has already received "hundreds" of reports of human rights abuses and criminal accusations against the Venezuelan government, days after Argentina invited Venezuelans in the country to file reports against the Venezuelan government.