UN human rights report ‘riddled with falsehoods’

UN investigators say Venezuelan authorities should conduct “independent, impartial and transparent investigations” into alleged human rights violations.

Venezuela’s president and top ministers are responsible for probable crimes against humanity, UN investigators said in a report the country’s government quickly labeled as “riddled with falsehoods.”

A team tasked with probing a slew of alleged violations said they had found evidence that state actors, including President Nicolas Maduro, were behind serious crimes such as extrajudicial killings and the systematic use of torture, AFP reported.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza pushed back on Twitter, criticizing the report for being “drawn up remotely without methodological rigor” and “controlled by governments that are subservient to Washington.”

According to AFP, he said the document, which was created by an International Fact-Finding Mission initiated by the UN Human Rights Council a year ago, was “riddled with falsehoods.”

Mission chairperson Marta Valinas said the report “found reasonable grounds to believe that Venezuelan authorities and security forces have since 2014 planned and executed serious human rights violations.”