31 Venezuelan and Spanish NGOs condemn Chavista “crimes” and demand that they be punished
Some thirty Venezuelan and Spanish associations and NGOs have come together to “categorically” condemn the “hate crimes promoted or tolerated by the Venezuelan regime” against political opponents, human rights defenders, journalists, social activists and vulnerable sectors of the population.
“We demand justice, truth and comprehensive reparation for all the victims of these crimes, as well as the investigation and punishment of those responsible and intellectually without impunity,” according to a joint manifesto published this Friday in Madrid by social and human rights organizations from various parts of Spain.
They therefore demand the “immediate and definitive closure of all the regime’s clandestine detention and torture centers, used as instruments of terror and political repression.” And they demand unrestricted access by international human rights organizations to verify the situation of the detainees.
Likewise, the immediate dissolution of the “armed groups” responsible for actions of “terrorism” against the Venezuelan people and the prosecution of their members by democratic courts.
Along these lines, they call in defense of freedom, human dignity and all victims of repression, political persecution and hate crimes “exercised from power” in the South American country.
The Venezuela Help Platform, the Citizen Alliance for the Freedom of Venezuela, the Ibero-American Coordinator Against Racism, Anti-Semitism and Intolerance, the Movement Against Intolerance and the Latin American Geopolitical Organization, among other entities, subscribe.
“We denounce before the international community,” they continue, “the existence of political prisoners, arbitrarily detained for reasons of conscience, opinion or civic participation, subjected to judicial processes without guarantees, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as forced separation from their families. We demand their full, immediate and unconditional release.”
They also demand that “all forms of criminalization of dissent” cease. And they reaffirm the commitment to the universal principles of human rights, justice, truth and reparation for victims. “The memory of those who have suffered persecution, exile, prison or death forces us not to remain silent,” they argue in the manifesto.
They also urge the democratic governments of the world, European institutions, international organizations and civil society not to accept or normalize repression, to “actively” monitor the situation in the country and to accompany the Venezuelan people in their legitimate aspiration for freedom, justice, democracy and full respect for human rights. And all this because “freedom is not negotiated, dignity is not pursued, human rights do not prescribe.”
Finally, they “clearly and publicly” support the opponents María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia as “legitimate leaders of the democratic transition process in Venezuela.” (Efe)
