Over 70 arbitrary detentions reported days into campaigning for Venezuela election, NGO says

Seventy-one “arbitrary detentions” have been reported within days of the start of campaigning for Venezuela’s presidential election, according to a human rights NGO.

A report by Laboratorio de Paz said that 48 of those detentions involved people who had provided some type of service to the campaign command of the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, of the Democratic Unitary Platform.

The arrests all took place between July 4 and 14 and most were in the state of Táchira, according to the report. The NGO also reported 26 cases of harassment, 11 obstructions to free movement, two closures of premises and three raids.

The NGO said the figures were part of a “recurring pattern” of Venezuelans being “systematically” targeted for political reasons “at the national level” and warned of concerns that such actions would increase as the election drew nearer.

Critics of President Nicolas Maduro’s government have long accused it of rigging votes and silencing the opposition, with the 2018 election that returned Maduro to office described as illegitimate by an alliance of 14 Latin American nations, Canada and the United States.

This time around, two opposition candidates – Maria Corina Machado and Corina Yoris – have been barred from running despite Maduro’s pledge to the United States that he would hold free and fair elections in exchange for sanctions relief.

The election is scheduled to take place on July 28. Ten candidates are in the running, including the incumbent Maduro, who aspires to re-election for six more years after 11 years in power.

Maduro’s main opponent is González Urrutia, who represents an alliance bringing together the main opposition parties and leaders in Venezuela.

The legal adviser to the opposition campaign, Perkins Rocha, said Sunday that at least 11 people linked to the campaign command had been arrested over the weekend.