Collective statement: Against the closure of civic space and abuses in Venezuela - AlSur

The elections of July 28th in Venezuela have unleashed a climate of lack of transparency, repression, violence and serious human rights violations. As AlSur Consortium, we join the international voices condemning the abuses of the Venezuelan government and demand guarantees for people to be able to demonstrate, protest and express themselves freely in the country.

We are extremely concerned about the excessive repression and violence undertaken by the Venezuelan government. So far, it is presumed that more than two thousand people have been arbitrarily detained and at least 24 people are estimated to have died, in addition to other actions of use of force against them.

The abusive and authoritarian use of technological means to exercise censorship, seek to extinguish all dissent and increase repression against citizens is denounced. The delicate political context in which Venezuela has been developing for several years requires that digital environments have free and secure channels for communication, opinion and access to information for people, but the actions evidenced deteriorate the democratic fabric and close the civic space.

Illegal detention of citizens to confiscate their phones and review their content, including photos, social network accounts and private conversations, has been reported. Also the monitoring of opinions and information shared on social networks, the use of cameras and patrolling drones to identify people during street protests. On the other hand, it has been reported the publication and exposure of sensitive data in social networks such as names, photos, addresses of opponents (doxxing) to put them at risk, which adds to the use of the VenApp application -a mechanism launched and promoted by the Government- so that people can report dissident activity of their neighbors or people close to the State, strengthening a culture of control and extreme polarization.

These actions are directly related to people's rights to privacy and freedom of expression by promoting self-censorship and fear of opinion.

At the same time, Venezuelan NGOs have demonstrated the existence of continuous interruptions of internet services and the blocking of websites of media outlets, civil society organizations and any other organization that they consider contrary to their regime. It has been recorded that in the last few weeks, at least 62 media outlets and 41 organizations have been suspended from the main internet service providers. Added to this is the recent decision of the Venezuelan government to block access to the social platforms X (formerly Twitter) and Tiktok, as well as messaging tools such as Whatsapp and Signal, to prevent information from being shared on them and accusing them of boycotting the elections, while encouraging the use of WeChat and Telegram, which have less control mechanisms and digital security for citizens.

In addition to all of the above, there is the recent approval (August 15) of a law for the control, regularization, performance and financing of civil society organizations. This law imposes all kinds of abusive controls against NGOs, foundations and non-profit organizations, establishes a new registry in charge of the Government, criminalizes several types of activities carried out by them, and distorts several democratic and civil principles in relation to the progressiveness of human rights such as non-discrimination or transparency, to replace them with mechanisms of persecution and criminalization of the genuine exercise of the rights of association and freedom of expression. In turn, by affecting all types of organizations, this law has the potential to take away support from thousands of citizens in vulnerable situations who benefit from social and humanitarian programs.

In relation to the above situation, as a consortium of 11 civil society and academic organizations working on human rights in digital environments, we stand in solidarity with Venezuelan citizens, denounce the abuses of rights and guarantees committed and join the international calls to urge the Venezuelan government to cease repressive actions and make transparent the electoral information that has been requested by international organizations and governments in the region.