UN accuses Maduro of crimes against humanity as US lawmakers pressure Biden to end oil export permits · The Floridian

The government of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro has been accused by the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on human rights violations in Venezuela of committing crimes against humanity.

After dictator Maduro’s defeat in July’s presidential elections, Maduro ordered his government to persecute political opponents using a series of criminal and violent tactics.

According to the UN report, these include arbitrary deprivation of life, arbitrary detention, short-term enforced disappearances, acts of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as sexual and based on gender.

Maduro mobilized the entire Venezuelan state apparatus, the report explains, to try to retain power by force.

“Following the presidential election of July 28, 2024, the authorities intensified and accelerated the harshest and most violent repression in order to silence political opponents or people perceived as such,” we can read in the report. “The repression carried out by the state and private actors with the acquiescence of the state, which continues today, has led to a widespread climate of fear among the population. »

U.S. lawmakers responded to Maduro’s malign actions by introducing a bipartisan bill that would ban U.S. companies from doing business with Venezuelan oil companies, Maduro’s source of funding.

President Joe Biden previously revoked permission for U.S. companies to export Venezuelan oil after Maduro flouted promises to hold free and fair presidential elections.

However, President Biden later renewed American oil company Chevron’s operating license in Venezuela.

Today, US lawmakers are calling on Biden to end all exceptions to Venezuelan oil sanctions to cut off any source of funding for Maduro.

Other bills aimed at pressuring Maduro to relinquish power, such as increasing the price for providing the U.S. government with information leading to his arrest, have been introduced.

According to the State Department, U.S. authorities are seeking to arrest Maduro for international crimes related to drug and arms trafficking.

In March 2020, Maduro was charged in a New York court with narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices .