Mexico City - A global human rights watchdog urged the U.S. and other governments on Wednesday to support their support for those seeking democratic change and asked President Nicolás Maduro to be responsible for suppressing his slight dissent after last year's presidential election.
Human Rights Watch specifically calls on the United States to consider other sanctions on Venezuelan government officials and members of the National Security Force. HRW also called for sanctions on armed groups loyal to the ruling party, which has claimed that despite solid evidence, it won the assault after the July 28 vote.
Meanwhile, the group recommended that the United States withdraw an executive order signed by Donald Trump in February to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court's investigation into Israel. Regulators believe the order could affect ongoing investigations by court prosecutors into possible human crimes committed by Venezuela.
“While the Trump administration has not specifically opposed the court’s involvement with the situation in Venezuela, the sanctions program appears to be partly aimed at working more broadly with the ICC and intimidating court officials and could impact the rights of victims around the world,” a report released by Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.
The report is the latest work by human rights advocates, documenting the post-election crackdown campaign against political opposition, protesters, bystanders and others in Venezuela. Their findings involved demonstrations conducted after and after elections by the National Security Forces and armed groups that ruled the party in the killings, torture and other ill-treatment across the country.
Venezuela's National Election Commission, together with government loyalists, announced that Maduro was the winner of the July 28 election. However, unlike previous matches, the election authorities did not provide detailed voting counts to support the announced results.
However, the opposition collected Tally sheets from 85% of electronic voting machines and posted them online - showing that its candidate Edmundo González's champion won 2-1 more profits. Both UN experts and the U.S.-based Carter Center were invited by the Maduro administration to observe the election, saying the statistics published by the opposition were legal.
In the days after the election, more than 2,000 people were detained and hundreds were charged with terrorism and incitement of hatred. Many detainees, including opposition and foreign nationals, have been forced to disappear.
The Office of the Venezuelan Attorney General said most of the detainees have been released. But dozens of people have connections with the opposition.
Wednesday's report cited figures from the opposition party Venezuela's opposition party, which shows that between November 2023, 285 people with affiliates were detained, a month after Maduro's opponents held the presidential election, as of April 2025. As of April 10, 100 of them have been released.
In its report, HRW urged foreign governments to interact with the Maduro government, "even if gradually developing, progress in human rights can ensure verifiable leverage." These include the release of persons who were arbitrarily detained and subjected to forced disappearance, the whereabouts of all detainees, and the closure based on the case of violations.
The group further calls on the U.S. government to once again fund Venezuela's humanitarian and human rights programs. Regulators noted that the Trump administration’s decision to end foreign aid worldwide has affected organizations “playing a key role in Venezuela, including independent journalists and those who provide legal and other support for those who are arbitrarily detained.”
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