UN Human Rights Coun­cil announces offi­cial inves­ti­ga­tion into Venezuela’s pres­i­den­tial elec­tion

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UN Human Rights Council announces official investigation into Venezuela’s presidential election

The fall­out from Venezuela’s pres­i­den­tial elec­tion con­tin­ued this week as the Unit­ed Nations Human Rights Coun­cil announced it was launch­ing an inves­ti­ga­tion into the con­tro­ver­sial elec­tion over four months after it occurred. It is wide­ly believed that incum­bent pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro fraud­u­lent­ly claimed vic­to­ry to remain in pow­er.

The U.N.’s pre­em­i­nent human rights watch­dog declared its inten­tion to probe the coun­try after its con­tro­ver­sial July pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. As part of the process, Venezuela was ordered not to elim­i­nate or destroy any vot­ing records, tal­ly sheets, or any mate­r­i­al relat­ed to the elec­tion that would reveal a tab­u­la­tion of the results, the Asso­ci­at­ed Press report­ed. 

The U.N.’s deci­sion to pro­ceed with the audit of Venezuela’s elec­tion was announced in a let­ter to mul­ti­ple law offi­cials in Cen­tral and South Amer­i­ca who peti­tioned the U.N. to inter­vene in Octo­ber after Maduro refused to step down or pro­vide evi­dence from the elec­tion sup­port­ing his claim of vic­to­ry. The peti­tion­ers claimed that Maduro com­mit­ted “elec­tion fraud” and vio­lat­ed the “polit­i­cal rights of mil­lions of Venezue­lans,” accord­ing to the Asso­ci­at­ed Press.

The inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty has reject­ed Maduro’s claims of vic­to­ry and pushed the Venezue­lan author­i­tar­i­an to pub­lish offi­cial elec­tion bal­lots and tal­lies. He has refused to do so. Even though the country’s Nation­al Elec­toral Coun­cil declared Maduro the win­ner on July 28, it wide­ly believed this claim was cor­rupt and the result of the Maduro regime’s pow­er and influ­ence. 

Thus far, the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty has attempt­ed soft pow­er to get Maduro to step down. It has not worked. The U.S., Euro­pean Union, Mex­i­co, Brazil, and Colom­bia have all request­ed Maduro’s gov­ern­ment to post the elec­tion results, as was cus­tom­ary in Venezuela before this year’s elec­tion. How­ev­er, Maduro’s regime con­tin­ued to refuse to do so. 

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Paulo Abrao, one of the lawyers respon­si­ble for the peti­tion to the U.N., assert­ed that Maduro has been try­ing to metaphor­i­cal­ly “run out the clock” with hopes that the world would for­get about Venezuela’s elec­tion, get dis­tract­ed by oth­er events, and ulti­mate­ly move on. Abrao said the world could not per­mit such a tragedy to occur or “nor­mal­ize its neb­u­lous elec­toral process,” the Asso­ci­at­ed Press report­ed.

“We can­not allow that to hap­pen,” Abrao told the Asso­ci­at­ed Press. “Now there is a for­mal case being processed in an inter­na­tion­al body with bind­ing force. Venezuela has the oblig­a­tion to com­ply with the deci­sion.”