INTRODUCTION: AN UNPRECEDENTED CRISIS
Venezuela is suffering an unprecedented human rights crisis that is not only affecting millions of people inside the country but which has also forced one in every ten people in Venezuela to leave their homes in the last four years. These millions of people, both inside and outside the country, have suffered and are continuing to suffer human rights violations such as the right to life, health or food, rights which are neither guaranteed nor protected by Nicolás Maduro’s government.
Instead of acknowledging and addressing this deep human rights crisis, the authorities are implementing a systematic and widespread policy of repression against those people who are bravely calling for a change in government and for guaranteed access to medicines, water, education, work and other human rights. Moreover, a biased justice system is denying victims the right to truth, justice and reparations, reinforcing the lack of protection of those suffering these violations. Faced with this reality, millions are leaving to seek the protection of other states.
It was against this backdrop that, in September 2018, Amnesty International called on the states of the Americas to “unanimously declare that Venezuela is facing a situation of mass human rights violations and that, in such circumstances, people forced to flee require an immediate response under a framework of respect for human rights.”