Blog de Valentina Oropeza

How much does Washington’s word weigh on human rights in Venezuela?

I asked Juanita Goebertus Estrada, Director of the Americas Division at Human Rights Watch, after the organization’s first official visit to Venezuela in 18 years.

Her answer was that the US influence in Venezuela “is still very large.”

Civil society groups told her team the same thing, again and again.

The release of political prisoners depends largely on pressure from Washington. That pressure was strongest right after Nicolás Maduro’s capture on January 3. Since then, the focus has shifted to the economy.

“What we saw firsthand was that economic issues are being prioritized over human rights and the rule of law,” she told me.

The interim government says at least 1,046 people have been released this year. Last week, Delcy Rodríguez asked the National Assembly to reform the so-called Law against Hatred, which has served as a legal framework for political persecution.

But according to Goebertus, 300 to 500 people are still arbitrarily detained. Relatives describe a basement cell at Rodeo I prison known as “the time machine.” According to the UN Fact-Finding Mission, detainees are held there naked and in total darkness for days, even up to three months.

Goebertus describes an internal struggle within the government: one sector open to some changes, and another that could push back toward full repression.

Even organizations whose own leaders have been prosecuted now see “positive changes.”

But they call this moment a “pause”: the repression has eased, but the apparatus behind it is still intact.