U.N. mission finds Venezuela national guard responsible for crimes against humanity

A United Nations fact-finding mission said in a report on Thursday that Venezuela’s national guard is responsible for “serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity.”

In the report, officials say they found that the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) “perpetrated arbitrary deprivation of life, arbitrary detentions, sexual and gender-based violence, as well as torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment during law enforcement operations in the context of protests and in actions of targeted political persecution since 2014.”

The report was prepared by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which is a U.N.-mandated body that investigates human rights violations in that country. It has issued reports several times a year since its establishment in September 2019.

Investigators found that the GNB “was a central actor in the commission of the crime against humanity of persecution on political grounds,” and used excessive force during protest peaks in 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2024 to crush dissent against Nicolás Maduro, who assumed the presidency in 2013.

“The torture, ill-treatment, and acts of sexual violence we have verified – including assaults and rape – were not isolated incidents. They form part of a pattern of abuse used to punish and break victims,” said Marta Valiñas, one of the members of the fact-finding mission.

According to a news release about the findings: “The report details how Venezuela’s ‘national security’ doctrine has merged military and police functions, legitimising the militarization of public security and expanding the role of the GNB in operations aimed at social control and internal repression.”

Furthermore, the report states that violations committed by the GNB are not prosecuted or investigated by the judicial system.

The mission concludes that “GNB officials, as well as senior military and political authorities, may bear criminal responsibility” for these international crimes.

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