The record of human rights in Venezuela has been criticized by human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Concerns include attacks against journalists, political persecution, harassment of human rights defenders, poor prison conditions, torture, extrajudicial executions by death squads, and forced disappearances.

According to the Human Rights Watch report of 2017, under the leadership of President Hugo Chávez and now President Nicolás Maduro, the accumulation of power in the executive branch and erosion of human rights guarantees have enabled the government to intimidate, persecute, and even criminally prosecute its critics. The report added that other persistent concerns include poor prison conditions, impunity for human rights violations, and continuous harassment by government officials of human rights defenders and independent media outlets. The report continues that in 2016, the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) detained dozens of people on allegations of planning, promoting, or participating in violent anti-government actions, including some that were, in fact, peaceful protests. Many say they have been tortured or otherwise abused in custody, or that they were unable to see their families or lawyers for hours, occasionally days, after an arrest. In several cases, prosecutors failed to present any credible evidence linking the accused to crimes. In some, the evidence included possession of political materials, including pamphlets calling for the release of political prisoners. According to the Amnesty International report from 2016/2017 human rights defenders continued to be targeted with attacks and intimidation by state media and high-ranking government officials.

Since 2014, the enduring crisis in Venezuela has resulted in hyperinflation, an economic depression, shortages of basic goods, and drastic increases in unemployment, poverty, disease, child mortality, malnutrition, and crime. According to the Amnesty International, the crisis in Venezuela has reached a "breaking point", with 75% of citizens suffering from weight loss due to shortage of food. According to the International Monetary Fund, the unemployment rate has reached 34.3%.

In 2006, Economist Intelligence Unit rated Venezuela as a "hybrid regime" with an index of 5.42 out of 10. The country was ranked 93 out of 167 countries, and the third-least democratic in Latin America after Cuba and Haiti.Democracy Index 2007 In the 2012 report, the country's index had deteriorated to 5.15 and its ranking to 95 out of 167. During the presidency of Nicolás Maduro, the country's democracy has deteriorated further, with the 2017 report downgrading Venezuela from a hybrid regime to an authoritarian regime, the lowest category, with an index of 3.87 (the second lowest in Latin America), reflecting "Venezuela's continued slide towards dictatorship as the government has side-lined the opposition-dominated National Assembly, jailed or disenfranchised leading opposition politicians and violently suppressed opposition protests."Democracy Index 2017

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative has similarly given Venezuela scores for Civil and Political Rights. For Safety from the State Rights, HRMI uses responses from human rights experts in Venezuela to give the country scores for freedom from arbitrary arrest, forced disappearance, the death penalty, extrajudicial execution, and torture and ill-treatment. Venezuela has received a cumulative score of 2.9 out of 10 for these rights. For Empowerment Rights, which consist of freedom of assembly and association, opinion and expression, and participation in government, Venezuela receives a cumulative score of 2.4 out of 10.

Legal framework Soon after President Chávez was first elected, a national referendum was called in April 1999 in which 92% of voters favored drafting a new constitution. The constitution was drafted by an elected assembly with the participation of diverse citizens' groups, and was voted on later that year in another national referendum and approved with 71.8% support among voters. The new constitution of Venezuela sought to secure a wider range of human rights, such as health care as a human right.Feo, Oscar. 2008. Neoliberal Policies and their Impact on Public Health Education: Observations on the Venezuelan Experience. Social Medicine 3 (4):223–231. It also created an Office of the Public Defender, which includes the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office. Of the 350 articles in the 1999 constitution, 116 are dedicated to duties, human rights, and guarantees, including a chapter on the rights of indigenous peoples.

Venezuela ratified the American Convention on Human Rights in 1977. This makes it part of the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Human Rights Committee) International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)

History

1980s

Massacre of El Amparo

The Massacre of El Amparo was a massacre of 14 fishermen that took place near the village of El Amparo, in Venezuela's western state of Apure, on 29 October 1988.Amnesty International, 31 March 1993, Venezuela: The Amparo Massacre: Four years on A joint military-police unit claimed the fishermen (who had no police records and were not known to either Venezuelan or Colombian military intelligence)Coronil, Fernando, and Skurski, Julie (2006), "Dismembering and Remembering the Nation: The Semantics of Political Violence in Venezuela", in Coronil, Fernando and Skurski, Julie (eds, 2006), States of Violence. University of Michigan, pp. 96–97. were a group of guerillas who attacked them with guns and grenades, with an alleged 15–20-minute exchange of gunfire occurring at a range of 20–30 m.Human Rights Watch, Human Rights in Venezuela, October 1993, pp. 20–22. A case taken to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) concluded in 1996, with the IACHR ordering Venezuela to pay over $700,000 in reparations to next of kin and surviving victims.Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 14 September 1996, El Amparo Case

Caracazo

One of the six cases brought against Venezuela by the IACHR between 1977 and 1998 related to the 1989 Caracazo, which successive Venezuelan governments failed to investigate, despite requests from human rights groups such as Amnesty International, and instructions from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In July 2009, then-defence minister Italo del Valle Alliegro was charged in relation to the Caracazo.BBC, 18 July 2009, Former Venezuela minister charged

1990s With increasing instability of the political system in the face of economic crisis, Venezuela saw two coup attempts in 1992; one of which was led by future president Hugo Chávez. Both failed, and in the process of resisting the coup attempts, government agents were reported to have killed forty people, both civilians and surrendered rebels, either as extrajudicial executions, or through the use of disproportionate force.Clifford C. Rohde, Jamie Fellner, Cynthia G. Brown (1993), Human rights in Venezuela, Human Rights Watch, pp. 61–65.

Arbitrary detentions numbered in the hundreds and continued for some time after the events, and involved student leaders and other civic leaders not connected with the coup attempts. Freedom of expression was suspended for two months in the February case, and three weeks in the November case, and involved censorship of the media. A series of demonstrations in March and April calling for the resignation of President Carlos Andrés Pérez and the restoration of constitutional guarantees were met with state violence including indiscriminate police firing into crowds, with a total of 13 deaths.

A number of members of the press covering the protests were severely injured by police. Although participants in the February coup attempt were tried under the regular military justice system, in response to the November coup attempt the government created ad hoc courts based on the 1938 legal code of Eleazar López Contreras, drawn up twenty years before the transition to democracy. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled the courts unconstitutional, but on the grounds that the President had neglected to suspend the relevant constitutional rights (right to a defence, right to be tried by one's natural judge) rather than on the due process grounds for which they were criticised.Clifford C. Rohde, Jamie Fellner, Cynthia G. Brown (1993), Human rights in Venezuela, Human Rights Watch, pp. 71–72.

During the 1989–1993 Perez period the violent repression of protest was commonplace, with one of every three demonstrations repressed. During the Caldera administration it fell, and toward the middle of this the proportion of demonstrations repressed had fallen to one of every six.Margarita López Maya and Luis Lander (2005), "Popular Protest in Venezuela: Novelties and Continuities", Latin American Perspectives, 32 (2), pp. 92–108. pr. 97–98.

2000s

Shortly after Hugo Chávez's election, ratings for freedom in Venezuela dropped according to political and human rights group Freedom House. In 2004, Amnesty International criticized President Chavez's administration's handling of the 2000 coup, saying that violent incidents "have not been investigated effectively and have gone unpunished" and that "impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators encourages further human rights violations in a particularly volatile political climate". Amnesty International also criticized the Venezuelan National Guard and the Direccion de Inteligencia Seguridad y Prevención (DISIP) stating that they "allegedly used excessive force to control the situation on a number of occasions" during protests involving the 2004 Venezuela recall. It was also noted that many of the protesters detained seemed to not be "brought before a judge within the legal time limit".

In 2005, Central University of Venezuela professors Margarita López Maya and Luis Lander, stated there was a "greater recognition of the right to protest, and this has been institutionalized." The violent repression of demonstrations fell to 1 in 25 in 1998–1999, and to 1 in 36 by 2002–2003. However, in 2008, Venezuela was ranked as the least democratic nation in South America in the 2008 Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index.The Economist Intelligence Unit's Index of Democracy 2008 Also in 2008, Freedom House removed Venezuela from its list of countries that have an electoral democracy. By 2009, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a report stating that Venezuela's government practiced "repression and intolerance".

2010s According to the United Nations, there were 31,096 complaints of human rights violations received between the years 2011 and 2014. Of the 31,096, 3.1% resulted in only in an indictment by the Venezuelan Public Ministry.

In 2011, NGO PROVEA criticized the fact that the government party PSUV selected as candidate for congress Róger Cordero Lara, who was militarily involved in the Cantaura massacre in 1982. Cordero was elected and PROVEA demanded his immunity be lifted.Provea criticizes Róger Cordero is allowed to become a deputy

In Freedom House's report on the year 2013, President Nicolás Maduro's government was criticized for "an increase in the selective enforcement of laws and regulations against the opposition in order to minimize its role as a check on government power", which gave Venezuela's freedom rating a downward trend.

2014 Venezuelan protests