GENEVA: The United Nations voiced deep concern Tuesday over what it said was a climate of fear in Venezuela following the country’s disputed presidential election results.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said he was troubled by the high number of arbitrary detentions and the disproportionate use of force.
“It is especially troubling that so many people are being detained, accused or charged either with incitement to hatred or under counterterrorism legislation,” Turk said in a statement.
“Criminal law must never be used to limit unduly the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.”
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro called Monday for the state to use an “iron fist” after deadly protests in response to his re-election, dismissed at home and abroad as a sham.
As the official protest death toll rose to 25, Maduro urged “severe justice” for violence he blames on the opposition, which insists its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won a July 28 vote by a landslide.
The UN human rights office said that according to official statements, more than 2,400 people have been arrested since July 29.
The figure includes the arbitrary detention of protesters, human rights defenders, adolescents, people with disabilities, members of the opposition or those perceived to be connected to them, as well as people who served as electoral observers accredited by opposition parties in polling stations, Turk’s office said.
Some of these cases would amount to enforced disappearances, it added.
“I call for the immediate release of everyone who has been arbitrarily detained, and for fair trial guarantees for all detainees,” said Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights.
“The disproportionate use of force by law enforcement officials and the attacks on demonstrators by armed individuals supporting the government, some resulting in deaths, must not be repeated.”
Turk’s spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a press briefing that the UN rights office wanted to see the right to political representation and freedom of expression upheld.
“In a climate of fear, there is no way that democratic principles can be realized, and there is no way that human rights can be protected,” she said.
“In such a climate of fear, when you have disagreement with a government policy, you will not express it.
“The very serious issues that Venezuela is facing right now on many fronts — economic, social — these will not be resolved if the people are living in a climate of fear.”
On Monday, the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela and rights violations urged the government to “immediately end the escalating repression” following the election.
It said more than 100 children and adolescents had been detained, and had not been accompanied by their parents during judicial proceedings.
The mission said street protests and social media criticism were being met with “fierce repression” and the government must “thoroughly investigate the spate of grave human rights violations that are currently occurring.”