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The Truth of Venezuela Against Infamy. Data and Testimonies from a Country Under Siege

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The Truth of Venezuela Against Infamy. Data and Testimonies from a Country Under Siege THE TRUTH OF VENEZUELA AGAINST INFAMY. DATA AND TESTIMONIES FROM A COUNTRY UNDER SIEGE 1 THE TRUTH OF VENEZUELA AGAINST INFAMY. DATA AND TESTIMONIES FROM A COUNTRY UNDER SIEGE 2 THE TRUTH OF VENEZUELA AGAINST INFAMY. DATA AND TESTIMONIES FROM A COUNTRY UNDER SIEGE TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface 5 I. The Multiform Aggression against Venezuela 8 1.1 The “Regime Change” Policy for Venezuela 8 1.1.1 Regime Change: Defining a Concept 8 1.1.2 The “Regime Change” Policy against Venezuela 12 1.1.3 Civil War Test Run and the Fabricated Color Revolution in 2014 14 1.1.4 Mercenary Activities and Coup d’État Attempts Induced from Abroad 17 1.1.5 A New Insurrectionary Plan: The Weaponised Color Revolution of 2017 19 1.1.6 New Mercenary Episodes 21 1.2 Failure of the Strategy of the Organization of American States 23 1.3 The National Assembly as the Trojan Horse of Imperialist Aggression 27 II. The Fact-finding Mission as Part of the Multiform Aggression 31 2.1 Members of the Fact-Finding Mission 33 2.2 Objectives of the Fact-finding Mission “Report” 35 2.3 Methodological Flaws of the Fact-finding Mission 36 2.3.1 The Methodology 36 2.3.2 Errors and Omissions of the Report 41 III. Respect, Guarantee and Protection of Human Rights as Value, Principle, Foundation and Purpose of the Venezuelan State 49 3.1 The New Institutional Framework for Human Rights Protection in Venezuela 49 3.1.1 The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Human Rights 49 3.1.2 Development of a New Institutional Framework for Human Rights Protection in the 21st Century 55 3.1.3 Public Policies for Human Rights Protection in Venezuela 58 3 THE TRUTH OF VENEZUELA AGAINST INFAMY. DATA AND TESTIMONIES FROM A COUNTRY UNDER SIEGE 3.1.4 International Relations in Human Rights of the Venezuelan State 62 3.2 Violence as a Political Action Strategy of the Venezuelan Opposition 64 3.2.1 Violent Protests to Reject April 2013 Electoral Results 64 3.2.2 Violent Protests in the Framework of “La Salida” from February to June 2014 68 3.2.3 The Cycle of Violent Protests from April to June 2017 73 3.2.4 Common Elements based on a Comparison of Violent Demonstrations 77 3.3 Transformations of the Citizen Security Model 78 3.3.1 Origin of the Police Reform 78 3.3.2 Premises of the Venezuelan New Police Model 81 3.3.3 Legal Framework of the Venezuela New Police Model 84 3.3.4 Model of Progressive and Differentiated Use of Police Force 88 3.4 The Organization of the People’s Power: Los Colectivos (The Collectives) 92 IV. Victims’ Right to Justice in Venezuela 93 4.1 The Role of the Public Prosecutor when Investigating and Punishing Human Rights Violations 93 4.2 Acts regarding the Protection of Human Rights 96 4.3 The Public Prosecutor’s Performance in Sentencing and Prison Regime Enforcement 99 4.4 Attention to Liberty Deprived People 102 4.5 Comprehensive Care of Victims 104 V. Conclusions 105 4 THE TRUTH OF VENEZUELA AGAINST INFAMY. DATA AND TESTIMONIES FROM A COUNTRY UNDER SIEGE PREAMBLE The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela sets forth in Title III, “Human Rights and Guarantees, and Duties,” a broad programmatic-normative heritage in favor of human rights, specifying at the same time the decisive role of the State in their guarantee, promotion and protection. Those provisions of our Magna Carta constitute the flight plan or the navigation chart of the Republic to exercise its national and international responsibilities in the field of human rights. Indeed, the qualitative leap given to the human rights institution in Venezuela through approval by popular referendum of the 1999 Constitution has no precedent in our history and represents a breakthrough in the Latin American and Caribbean regions. Specific considerations such as those expressed in the National Constitution, article 23, show not only the intention but also the breadth and importance given by the Republic to the sacred institution of human rights, while ensuring its anchorage with human rights multilateral and international standards aimed at improving their enjoyment or their most favorable exercise. “Treaties, pacts and conventions related to human rights, signed and ratified by Venezuela, have constitutional hierarchy and prevail in the domestic order, insofar as they contain norms on their enjoyment and exercise that are more favorable than those established in the Constitution and the Laws of the Republic, and are of immediate and direct application by the courts and other bodies of the Public Powers.” An essential part of the foreign policy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has been to sign most of the agreements related to human rights, and at the same time, actively participate in all international spaces where they are discussed. Of course, an essential foundation of this policy is to contribute to the management and handling of human rights based on the principles of objectivity, impartiality and non-selectivity to avoid their exploitation for political purposes. This aspiration undoubtedly pursues two elementary goals, i) avoiding the mediatization of human rights on the one hand, and ii) strengthening the multilateral system that regulates human rights, on the other. 5 THE TRUTH OF VENEZUELA AGAINST INFAMY. DATA AND TESTIMONIES FROM A COUNTRY UNDER SIEGE For those reasons, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela decided to postulate as candidate to integrate the Human Rights Council in the (2020-2022) period, a position to which the Republic acceded by the vote of the UN General Assembly despite last-minute attempts by a group of countries to prevent Venezuela, as de facto and legal member of the United Nations, from occupying a seat in the aforementioned Council. Those first attempts to deny Venezuela its right to be elected as member of the Human Rights Council foreshadowed the campaign that would later be launched to criminalize Venezuela and question its suitability as a valid member of the Council. Since the initial campaign to request the removal of Venezuela from its seat as member of the Council failed, that group of countries drew up, according to their procedures, an absolutely biased draft resolution directed not at cooperation, but at confrontation and prejudiced condemnation of a member state. That Resolution (A/HRC/42/25) created the so-called “Fact-finding Mission” made up of alleged “experts” of doubtful credibility, who presented the conclusions of their work in September 2020. Noteworthy is the fact that said resolution was passed with the vote of nineteen (19) of the forty-seven (47) countries making up the Council, twenty-one (21) abstentions and seven (7) votes against. It should be mentioned that the nineteen (19) countries approving the resolution represent 40% of the Human Rights Council, that is, not even half of the member states. Notwithstanding this figure, even more revealing is the fact that absolutely all the nineteen countries that voted in favor of that resolution have not recognized the constitutional government of President Nicolás Maduro. This fact leads us to wonder if the promotion, preparation and positive vote for a deeply politicized resolution was the result of the non-recognition of the Venezuelan Government or the result of a moderately objective view on human rights. On the other hand, it is striking that all countries that voted against - seven countries - or all countries that abstained - twenty-one countries - recognize the constitutional government of President Nicolás Maduro. Such countries make up 59.5% of the Human Rights Council. Therefore, we believe that a serious and in-depth evaluation of the damage that can and is being done to the multilateral human rights system is pertinent when the bilateral positions held on a State are used as a parameter to try to question or “fail” that sovereign State. Well, according to the results of the vote on the resolution in comment, there is a direct correlation between the non-recognition of President Nicolás Maduro and the alleged condemnation for human rights violation. 6 THE TRUTH OF VENEZUELA AGAINST INFAMY. DATA AND TESTIMONIES FROM A COUNTRY UNDER SIEGE In this sense, this report responds to the moral need of defending our national sovereignty and commitment with the guidelines of our foreign policy in human rights matters, because a group of governments - under express influence, imposition or agreement with the United States - is forcing the instrumentalization of the Human Rights Council, to i) disturbing and ignoring the presence of Venezuela in the aforementioned Human Rights Council; ii) misinforming on the role of national institutions to guarantee, protect and defend human rights; iii) deteriorating the current cooperative relations between the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Venezuelan Government; iv) influencing domestic policy affairs such as the elections scheduled for December 6, 2020. This report contextualizes the entire national and international process that involves the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and highlights that the alleged acts of human rights violations arise, to a large extent, from proven acts of insurrectionary political violence led by the Venezuelan opposition supported by external factors. We cannot ignore that since President Nicolás Maduro’s rise to political power and his subsequent re-election, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has been subject to multiform aggression that infringes upon its right to development, peace and self-determination. As an independent Republic, Venezuela vindicates its right to defend its sovereign rights and prevent such acts, acting in accordance with international human rights legislation and fairly prosecuting responsible people and other people involved. Cases of excesses and human rights violations by State agents have been investigated and punished, and the right to justice and reparation for victims has been guaranteed.
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