• Venezuela Tortured and 'suicided': the horrors of Chavismo in the prisons of the cruel dictatorship

The Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has decided that the Office of the Prosecutor of the Court will resume its investigation into crimes against humanity in Venezuela. The investigation was suspended since April last year thanks to an appeal filed by the Bolivarian revolution, which claimed to have undertaken the investigation of the crimes.

The request of the prosecutor Karim Khan, made in November of last year, and the testimonies of 1,875 victims of Chavismo have weighed more than the observations of the Venezuelan officialdom, reiterated to Khan himself in early June during the start-up of an office of the Prosecutor's Office in Caracas.

"The Chamber concluded that while Venezuela is taking some investigative measures, its domestic criminal proceedings do not sufficiently reflect the scope of the investigation envisaged by the Office of the Prosecutor. The focus generally seems to be on direct and/or lower-level perpetrators," argued the ICC, which has also defined as "inexplicable" the periods of investigative inactivity. "They do not reflect the scope of the case," they concluded in the report.

This process began in 2018 thanks to the initiative of Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay and Peru. The decision, received with euphoria by human rights and civil society organizations in Venezuela, was made public a day after the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, precisely one of the crimes against humanity investigated along with extra-summary executions, forced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and rape.

"It is a historic step towards justice," reacted the NGO Provea, while Delsa Solórzano, candidate for the opposition primaries, said that it was a new triumph for the victims and "a new setback for the dictatorship."

"Bravo, Venezuela. We are moving forward!" said Tamara Suju, director of the Casla Institute for Human Rights, whose testimony to the ICC reflects how torture is systematically applied not only in the headquarters of the General Directorate of Criminal Counterintelligence (DGCIM) and the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN), but also in clandestine detention centers.

One of the Chavista leaders who is most singled out for the continuation of the investigations is the head of the Public Ministry, Tarek William Saab, "key for his incoherent reports, without demonstrable data, for the paralysis of the files, the disorder and lack of attention to the victims. They have been fundamental elements for international justice to advance," said former prosecutor Zair Mundaray, exiled today in Colombia.

"We must evaluate what position the Maduro government will adopt in the face of the ICC's decision. Rhetorically he has been preparing to dismiss the process as politically biased, but days ago he signed an agreement for the Prosecutor's Office of the Court to open an office in Caracas," warned internationalist Mariano de Alba, senior advisor at the Crisis Group.

Chavismo and its propaganda apparatus have viciously criticized Khan, after he assured that Chavista forces had subjected the civilian population to a "systematic attack". "Prejudiced vision that instrumentalizes justice and human rights for political purposes" that of the prosecutor, according to the government of Caracas, who also endorsed "the fallacies of the media and geopolitical aggression launched to accuse Venezuela of alleged crimes against humanity that have never occurred."

Prosecutor Khan has become the big stone in Maduro's shoe amid the whitewashing operation launched by his main allies, with Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro at the helm.

  • Venezuela
  • Chavismo

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