Since the beginning of 2024, civil society organizations have observed an alarming growth in violations of the right to participation and freedom of expression, which have increased as July 28, the date of the presidential election in Venezuela, approaches. This was expressed in the public hearings of the 190th Period of Sessions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), held this July 12.
Espacio Público (EP) spokesperson shared information about the increase in restrictions on freedom of expression: the NGO recorded the closure of 16 stations in several states of the country and 94 cases of censorship and police harassment between January and June, which affect journalists, infoactivists and social leaders who cover the electoral campaign. On the other hand, EP registered 33 arrests of people exercising their right to freedom of expression, in 10 of which the government invoked the illegitimate Law against Hate.
Next, the Human Rights Center of the Andrés Bello Catholic University (CDH-UCAB) pointed out that the official “Bolivarian fury” policy was reactivated since the beginning of 2024. It is a highly repressive strategy in times of conflict, which has coincided with arbitrary arrests and disappearances, registering at least 40 arrest warrants, including that of defender Rocío San Miguel who has already been arbitrarily detained for 5 months.
The CDH-UCAB also highlighted that for the first time there is less than 5 months to prepare the electoral process, amid opacity in information, a call accompanied by the not timely publication of the electoral schedule, repressive practices, candidatures vetoed without legal justification and restrictive campaign regulations with discretionary application, which is why it concluded that Venezuela lacks minimum conditions for participation in the campaign.
For its part, Voto Joven presented the results of an investigation carried out with AlertaVenezuela, in which the underrepresentation of the migrant population in the electoral registry (RE) is observed, since there are some 7.7 million Venezuelans abroad, of which 5.5 million are of voting age, but less than 1% of them were able to register or update the RE, so they will not be able to vote.
Also, within Venezuela, a discrepancy is observed between RE and the population with the capacity to vote, especially among young people. There is a gap of more than 3.5 million unregistered young people, of which only 600 thousand were able to register. Voto Joven stated that the RE operated with deliberate delays and throughout the process has been characterized by information opacity on the part of the CNE.
The organizations ask the IACHR to continue closely monitoring the human rights situation in Venezuela, the elections, as well as during the following months and until the inauguration in January 2024; in addition to issuing public statements on the situation in the country.
The commissioner and rapporteur for Venezuela, Gloria Monique de Mees, expressed her attention to the lack of statements from the CNE in relation to acts of political persecution.
Other commissioners referred to the existence of worrying data about the democratic viability of the July 28 election that could compromise the result, even referring to the possibility of fraud.
The IACHR experts expressed surprise and alarm at the information provided and committed to using the different mechanisms at their disposal to demand that the Venezuelan State be held accountable for the violation of human rights, considering that Venezuela has a “history of censorship” that has become “everyday” for the media.
Regardless of the result of the election, we will have to be very attentive to events, because the restriction on freedom of expression will continue, they concluded.