MEXICO CITY (AP) — A global human rights watchdog on Wednesday urged the United States and other governments to bolster their support for people seeking democratic change in Venezuela and to hold President Nicolás Maduro accountable for the crackdown on dissent he intensified after the country’s presidential election last year.
Human Rights Watch specifically called on the U.S. to consider imposing additional sanctions on Venezuelan government officials and members of state security forces. HRW also called for sanctions on ruling party-loyal armed groups linked to the widespread rights violations that followed the July 28 vote that Maduro claims to have won despite credible evidence to the contrary.
At the same time, the organization recommended the U.S. rescind an executive order President Donald Trump signed in February imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court over investigations of Israel. The order, according to the watchdog, could affect an ongoing investigation by the court’s prosecutor into possible crimes against humanity committed in Venezuela.
“While the Trump administration has not specifically objected to the Court’s engagement with the situation in Venezuela, the sanctions program appears designed in part to chill broader cooperation with the ICC and intimidate Court officials, and will likely affect the rights of victims globally,” Human Rights Watch said in a report published Wednesday.
The report is the latest work from human rights advocates documenting Venezuela’s post-election repression campaign against members of the political opposition, protesters, bystanders and others. Their findings have implicated state security forces and ruling party-loyal armed groups in killings, torture and other abuses across the country during and after demonstrations that followed the election.
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, stacked with government loyalists, declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 election. But unlike in previous contests, electoral authorities did not provide detailed vote counts to back the announced result.
The opposition, however, collected tally sheets from 85% of electronic voting machines and posted them online — showing its candidate, Edmundo González, had won by a more than a 2-1 margin. U.N. experts and the U.S.-based Carter Center, both invited by Maduro’s government to observe the election, have said the tally sheets published by the opposition are legitimate.
More than 2,000 people were detained in the days after the election and hundreds were charged with counts of terrorism and incitement to hatred. Many detainees, including members of the opposition and foreign nationals, were subjected to enforced disappearances.
Most of those detainees have been released, according to Venezuela’s Attorney General’s Office. But dozens of people affiliated with the opposition remain behind bars.
Citing figures from opposition party Vente Venezuela, Wednesday’s report shows that 285 people affiliated with opposition parties were taken into custody between November 2023 — the month after Maduro’s opponents held a presidential primary election — and April 2025. As of April 10, 100 of them had been released.
HRW in its report urged foreign governments to engage with the Maduro government "as leverage to secure verifiable, even if incremental, progress on human rights.” That includes the release of people arbitrarily detained and subjected to enforced disappearances, the disclosure of all detainees’ whereabouts, and the closure of cases based on fabricated violations.
The group further called on the U.S. government to again make funds available for humanitarian and human rights programs in Venezuela. The watchdog noted that Trump administration decisions to end foreign assistance across the world have impacted organizations “playing key roles in Venezuela, including independent journalists and those providing legal and other support to people who have been arbitrarily detained.”
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FILE - Police detain protesters demonstrating against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro's reelection, the day after the vote in Caracas, Venezuela, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
FILE - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks at the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, July 31, 2024, three days after his disputed reelection. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
FILE - Police on a motorcycle leave the Boleita National Police detention center where some people arrested during recent protests against the official results of the presidential election are being held, in Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
