Post-Maduro Venezuela has kept ‘repressive apparatus’: UN experts

Filed 2h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

UN investigators reported Wednesday that Venezuela has kept its 'repressive apparatus' intact even after the United States detained Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, with long-term detentions down but no institutional reforms to match. The Fact-Finding Mission said laws criminalizing dissent remain on the books, intelligence services retain their old structures, and at least 19 officials accused of violations remain in their posts.

The mission specifically flagged the colectivos, pro-government armed groups it calls central to the repression, as untouched by any dismantling effort. Mission leader Sofía Macher said the reduction in the harshest repression is real but does not amount to a transformation of the system.

Venezuela's presidency claimed 131 political prisoners were released after talks last month, but NGOs could only confirm around 80, and estimate more than 300 remain jailed. About 100 relatives of the detained marched on acting leader Delcy Rodríguez's palace last Friday demanding more releases.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Taking out the front man and calling it reform is like replacing the sign on a shop that still sells the same rotten goods inside. Nineteen officials keeping their desks tells you everything about who is actually running the machine day to day. Somebody ought to ask acting leadership why the numbers on paper never seem to match the numbers on the ground.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: At Rest · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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