UN alerts of 'Climate of Fear' as Venezuela lawmakers consider crackdown on dissent

The UN voiced concern Tuesday over a "climate of fear" in post-election Venezuela as lawmakers mulled a package of laws critics say target opponents of strongman Nicolas Maduro.

Electoral officials loyal to Maduro declared him the victor of a July 28 vote whose contested results have plunged the country into a political crisis with 25 killed, dozens injured and hundreds arrested amid protests.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement he was troubled by "the high and continuing number of arbitrary detentions, as well as disproportionate use of force" reported since the election "and the resulting climate of fear."

The National Electoral Council (CNE) had declared Maduro the president-elect for a third, six-year term, giving him 52 percent of ballots cast. It has not provided a detailed breakdown.

The opposition says its own tally of polling-station-level results showed Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a 74-year-old retired diplomat, had won more than two-thirds of votes.

The United States, European Union and several Latin American countries have also rejected Maduro's claim of victory.

Gonzalez Urrutia and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was barred from running by Maduro-friendly state institutions, are in hiding after the president accused them of fomenting a "coup d'etat" and inciting "civil war."

The South American country's national assembly, meanwhile, is considering a package of laws that would tighten regulations on the registration and funding of non-governmental organizations.

This comes after Maduro ally and National Assembly president Jorge Rodriguez called NGOs a "facade for the financing of terrorist actions."

Other measures being mulled by lawmakers seek to increase government oversight over social media and to punish "fascism" -- a term often used by Maduro in relation to the opposition and other detractors.

The socialist president insists social media is being used to attack him and to promote "hate," "fascism" and "division."

Last week, he banned social media site X for 10 days after CEO Elon Musk said Maduro had engaged in "major election fraud." The president has also promoted a boycott against WhatsApp.

 'Iron fist'  

Turk expressed his concern about the legislative project, and urged legislators to refrain from adopting laws "that undermine civic and democratic space in the country."

The vast majority of 277 lawmakers in the single-chamber legislature are loyal to Maduro, who had warned of a "bloodbath" if he lost his reelection bid.

On Monday, he called for the state to use an "iron fist" and urged "severe justice" for post-election violence he blamed on the opposition.

The UN human rights office said more than 2,400 people have been arrested since July 29, and Turk called for the "immediate release of everyone who has been arbitrarily detained, and for fair trial guarantees for all detainees."

For his part, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he had spoken to Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Murillo about "the importance of supporting efforts in Venezuela to achieve a dialogue and democratic exit from the crisis."

Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday nine journalists have been arrested in Venezuela since the election, of whom four remain behind bars on charges including "conspiracy" and "terrorism."

Local and foreign journalists in the country faced a "climate of hostility and repression marked by arbitrary arrests, threats, physical attacks, censorship and restrictions on access to information," it said in a statement.

Since coming to power in 2013, Maduro has overseen an economic collapse of the once-wealthy petro state due to economic mismanagement and sanctions even as he tightened control over the military, courts and other state institutions.

According to the United Nations, more than seven million Venezuelans have fled the country of 30 million as GDP plunged 80 percent in a decade.

Maduro's last election in 2018 was also rejected as a sham by dozens of countries.

But years of damaging sanctions failed to dislodge the president, who enjoys loyalty from a well-established system of political patronage, as well as from Russia, China and Cuba.