President Nicolás Maduro and crimes against humanity in Venezuela

From Geneva, Switzerland – “Officials of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB)” in Venezueladepending on the president Nicolas Madurowho are accused of committing crimes against humanity for “more than a decade” between 2014 and 2024, according to a report by the International Fact-Finding Mission, which consists of three independent experts who act according to their conscience, receive no salary but only travel expenses to carry out their work and whose reports will be publicly debated in Geneva before the UN Human Rights Council. (1)

The “Bolivarian National Guard (GNB)” “directly contributed to the arbitrary deprivation of human life, illegal detention, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and sexual violence and gender, both in protest control operations and in actions of selective political persecution, whose persistence was facilitated by a persistent environment of impunity“summarizes the 123-page mission report. (2)

The document reproduces the organizational chart of the Venezuelan repressive system led by President Nicolás Maduro, who is Commander-in-Chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), on which depend the Minister of Defense and the Strategic Operations Command, a task force that directs the army, navy, aviation, militia and the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), giving political and operational control to Nicolás Maduro. (3)

“The documented facts demonstrate the GNB’s role in a pattern of systematic and coordinated repression against opposition figures or those perceived as such,” since 2014, “a national security doctrine that has merged military and police functions and legitimized the militarization of citizen security,” using the GNB’s role in operations aimed at social control and internal oppression“. (4)

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“The highly centralized chain of command led by Maduro carried out illegal actions without effective internal control or accountability mechanisms. At the height of protests in 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2024, the GNB exercised disproportionate use of force, including the use of lethal and less-lethal weapons, and fired improperly. The mission has reasonable grounds to believe that GNB officers “fired firearms fired.” indiscriminately and affecting vital areas of the victims’ bodies.” (5)

The experts documented in their report “massive and selective arbitrary arrests, physical violence during arrests, ‘evidence planting’, torture, ill-treatment, even sexual and gender-based violence in GNB facilities used as temporary detention centers,” and even the modification of “projectiles to cause greater harm.” However, the “sexual assaults and rapes were not isolated cases”. Part of a pattern of abuse to punish and break victims“. (6)

The device used by the GNB “was a central actor in carrying out the crime against humanity of persecution for political reasons. According to civil society data, between 2019 and 2020, the GNB carried out the most arrests for political reasons and played a key role in the “Operation Do Do“after the 2024 elections, aimed at capturing and criminalizing opponents through unfounded accusations of terrorism or incitement to hatred.” (7)

“The report identifies a pattern of structural impunity underpinned by systematic failures of the Venezuelan justice system and demonstrates its inability or unwillingness to investigate and prosecute the violations committed by the GNB: investigations without progress, persistent procedural paralysis, manipulation of evidence, deliberate obstruction by the GNB and concentration of sanctions only on low-level personnel.” (8)

The Mission concludes that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that GNB officials and senior military and political commanders may be criminally responsible under Articles 25 and 28 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC, as direct and indirect authors or co-authors by virtue of command responsibility). However, since the ICC acts complementary to the national judiciary and in Venezuela, which recently withdrew from the Rome Statute, There is no trial against Maduro, the ICC is criminally responsible. The initiative assessed by the ICC could not move forward under the current circumstances, however promoted by Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and the OAS (9).

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In this context, six international organizations have just condemned the death of Alfredo Javier Diaz Figueroain the custody of the Venezuelan State, which occurred on December 5th in the El Helicoide detention center under the control of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN). He was governor of Nueva Esparta, member of the Democratic Action political party, imprisoned for more than a year. He had no access to a trustworthy lawyer. (10)

These 6 organizations have collected data from the organization “Foro Penal” which shows that “since 2014, 17 prisoners have died in state custody in Venezuela.” For their part, the organizations “Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón” and the “Venezuelan Prisons Observatory” count 25 people who died in the same circumstances and during the same period, including detention centers, hospitals and house arrests, in addition to 5 other people who died of serious health complications after his release. (11)

They conclude that “in Venezuela there are at least 1,082 documented cases of people arbitrarily deprived of their liberty for political reasons, including 900 men and 182 women, and 858 people who continue to be deprived of their liberty without having established their criminal responsibility to meet the needs of their family members deprived of their liberty” (12).

(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,) “Crimes against humanity: the role of the “Bolivarian National Guard”, Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Geneva, December 11, 2025.

(10,11,12) Washington Office on Latin American Affairs (WOLA), Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P), Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, CIVICUS: Global Alliance for Citizen Participation, Due Process Foundation (DPLF), Freedom House.