UN Human Rights council to investigate Venezuelan abuses (Sept. 27, 2019)

The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to create an independent fact-finding body to investigate extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, torture, and other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment committed in Venezuela since 2014. The resolution was proposed by Lima Group countries and was approved with 19 votes, with seven against and 21 abstentions.

The resolution calls on Venezuelan authorities to cooperate with the fact-finding mission, as well as with the UN experts whom they have agreed to allow into the country. It condemned "widespread targeted repression and persecution" through what it called the excessive use of force by security agents against peaceful anti-government protesters, the closing down of media and the erosion of the rule of law.

It also condemned arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances carried out by security agencies, including the special force known as Faes, and pro-government civilian armed groups, called colectivos.

The decision follows concerns expressed by UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet during her June visit to Venezuela. (See July 4's post and July 5's.)

The measure stopped short of creating a Commission of Inquiry, the greatest level of scrutiny the council can authorize.

“The action by the Human Rights Council sends a clear message to the Venezuelan authorities that they will eventually be held accountable for their crimes," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "It was high time for the international community, led by countries in the Americas, to listen to the long-forgotten victims of what is an unprecedented human rights disaster in the region," said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

(BBC, Human Rights Watch, Deutsche Welle, Associated Press)

More Venezuela

• The European Union slapped sanctions on seven members of Venezuela’s security and intelligence services, today, on suspicion that they are involved in torture and other abuses, reports the Associated Press.

• This week the U.S. banned senior Venezuelan officials and their families from entering the country. (BBC)

• Maduro made a surprise Russia visit this week, probably aimed at showing the leaders gathered at UNGA that his government still has powerful allies, according to the Venezuela Weekly. US and European leaders tried to downplay the significance of Maduro’s visit, write David Smilde and Dimitris Pantoulas.

• A group of Russian military specialists arrived in Caracas this week apparently in order to to carry out maintenance on Russian military hardware sold to Venezuela. (Reuters)

News Briefs

Honduras

• Former Honduran lawmaker Tony Hernández goes on trial next week in New York, where U.S. federal prosecutors have charged him with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. He's the younger brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who prosecutors say is involved in the same drug trafficking conspiracy. They said that the president used drug money to help win elections in 2013 and 2017, and that he offered protection to drug traffickers who supported him, reports the New York Times. (See yesterday's briefs on the opportune migration pact between the U.S. and Honduras signed earlier this week.)

Migration

• In response to Central American cooperation on migration issues, the U.S. Trump administration is looking at ways to resume some foreign assistance to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan. (Devex)

• The U.S. refugee cap next year will be at an all-time low: 18,000. It's a drastic reduction from the Obama administration's 110,000, reports Buzzfeed. Of these, 1,500 spots would be for refugees from the Northern Triangle.

Drugs

• Fundación Gabo and Open Society Foundations launched a fund for investigations and new narratives on drugs for 25 journalists in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, México, Paraguay and Perú.

• Drug traffickers moving cocaine from South America to the U.S. are increasingly creative in moving their product to market through circuitous routes -- and deploy sophisticated analysis of factors including state weakness, corruption and impunity to determine strategies, writes Carolina Sampó at the AULA blog.

Nicaragua

• Nicaragua's Nuevo Diario shut down its print and digital editions today due to "economic, technical and logistical difficulties." The announcement comes in the midst of ongoing repression by the Ortega administration against the press, including blocking access to paper, ink and other materials needed to print. (Confidencial, CNN)

• Government opponents returning to Nicaragua from exile face persecution and harassment, aggression or even jail, reports Confidencial.

Corruption

• The regional push against corruption, fueled by public anger, is at a turning point after excesses that include overuse of preventive prison detentions and unethical processes. The Economist's Bello column argues that "the campaign should be sharpened, not abandoned."

Mexico

• Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was among the absentees in New York this week -- skipping UNGA highlights AMLO's isolationist tendencies, according to the Latin America Risk report, which notes that AMLO has yet to leave the country as president.

• The AMLO administration's efforts to relaunch the Ayotzinapa investigation (see yesterday's briefs and Sept. 19's) cannot succeed if old, failed methods are maintained. Citizen scrutiny is key to advancing in a sound investigation in this case, but there seems to be little political will towards this goal, write Mexican journalists Zorayda Gallegos and Silber Meza  in Post Opinión.

• An amnesty law proposed by AMLO would exclude people accused of grave crimes for political reasons, as well as nearly 4,000 victims of arbitrary detention, argues Laura Castellanos in a Post Opinión piece.

• Mexican women's rights activists celebrated Oaxaca state's decriminalization of abortion. (See yesterday's briefs) Advocates say illegal abortions are the third-largest cause of maternal deaths in the state, reports the Guardian.

Ecuador

• Ecuadorean authorities want to double the Galapagos Islands visitor fee, in response to increased tourism and costs. (New York Times)

Did I miss something, get something wrong, or do you have a different take? Let me know ...

Latin America Daily Briefing