The International Mission has also denounced that among the various practices are torture to extract confessions, threats, and sexual violence. Photograph: Screenshot of a statement by Marta Valiñas, President of the Commission, before the UN.
Guacamaya, September 22, 2025. The United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela confirmed in its latest report a surge in repression following the presidential elections held on July 28, 2024. The document, presented this Monday in Geneva, asserts that over the past year, the crime of political persecution has persisted in Venezuela.
State coercion has notably intensified against those who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country. Furthermore, the Mission states that “no national authority has demonstrated the capacity to prevent, investigate, or punish the serious human rights violations that constitute international crimes.”
The report documents killings during protests, deaths in custody, and over 2,200 arbitrary detentions, as well as torture, enforced disappearances, and sexual violence—particularly targeting political prisoners. These actions, classified as crimes against humanity, are described as part of a systematic state plan to silence dissent and maintain political control.
Marta Valiñas, the Commission’s president and a Portuguese jurist, specified that 25 deaths were linked to the post-electoral repression episode, of which 14 cases were thoroughly analyzed and documented. In 12 of those, security forces were found to be involved, and the possibility of opposition involvement was ruled out.
Valiñas emphasized that, despite a year having passed since the events, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has not provided details on the investigations it claims to have conducted, which also accused the opposition of committing the crimes. “However, our investigation has revealed the opposite, and to date, all of the deaths remain unpunished,” she stated.
Opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, Nicolás Maduro’s rival in the 2024 elections and currently in exile, endorsed the report as confirmation that these crimes constitute a state policy. “In the face of torture, sexual violence, enforced disappearance, or death, there can be no tolerance or justification,” González posted on X.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Alexander Yánez, dismissed the Mission’s commissioners, accusing them of pursuing a political agenda aimed at regime change in Venezuela. He claimed the reports “cite dubious sources, use fabricated testimonies, and rely on statistics lacking methodological rigor.”
