The US State Departments latestHuman Rights Reportcondemns Venezuela for serious abuses. Weaponizing human rights, accusations are selectively applied to serve a destabilization campaign. In this article, a mirror is held up to Uncle Sam to see how well America the beautiful holds up to the same charges, while also exposing the role of sanctions, compliant NGOs, and military threats in Washingtons hybrid war on Venezuela.
By Roger D. Harris
The carceral state
The US report indicts Venezuela for arbitrary or unlawful killings. Meanwhile, in the land of the free,police killingshit a record high in in 2024. Impunity is high with charges brought against offending officers in fewer than 3% of cases. The FBI itself admits thattransparency is hampered.
Prolongedsolitary confinement, recognized as torturous, is widespread in US prisons and ICE detention centers, affecting over 122,000 people daily. A US Senatereport on torturedocumented
CIA abuses, yet meaningful accountability has failed. Hundreds ofpolitical prisonerslanguish in penitentiaries in the US and in Guantnamo, the majority of which are people of color. Roughly 70% of local jail inmates are held inpretrial detention, often pressured with coercive plea deals, undermining equality before the law.
The US has thelargest prison populationin the world (about 1.8 to 2 million) and an incarceration rate over 2.5 timesgreaterthan Venezuelas. Even after release, about four million citizens remaindisenfranchiseddue to felony convictions, disproportionately affecting Black communities.
Freedom to protest
Washington faults Venezuela for limiting freedom of expression. Yet, numerous US states have passed or consideredanti-protest laws(e.g., critical infrastructure bills) that civil-liberties groups warn chill peaceful assembly.
Reporters without Borders (RSF)observes, the country is experiencing its first significant and prolonged decline in press freedom in modern history. This accusation is particularly notable because RSF isstronglybiasedinsupport of the USand receives funding from the State Department and the National Endowment for Democracy.Arrests and detentionsof journalists surged in 2024;schoolbook bansspiked across 29 states. In April 2024, Congress reauthorized and expanded FISA 702, enablingwarrantless surveillanceaccording to legal scholars.
As the US-based Black Alliance for Peace observes,domestic repressionin the US colonial/capitalist core is imperative to support the aggressive militarism abroad.
This coupling of domestic subjugation with the international is painfully evident with the US imperialist/Israeli zionist aggression abroad in Gaza, while pro-Palestine advocates are suppressed at home. Zionist curricula are being imposed at all levels of education; at least half of US states now require so-called Holocaust education. Pro-Palestine faculty, students, and staff are being purged.
Washingtons accusation of Venezuelan antisemitism cites President Nicols Maduro calling Israels assault on Gaza the most brutal genocide since Hitler. Its charge of antisemitism conflatesVenezuelas political criticismof the zionist state with hatred of the Jewish religion If antisemitism includes Muslim Arabs, US culpability is so blatant that it requires no additional documentation.
Meanwhile, the US accuses Venezuela of failing to protect refuges and asylum seekers. This projection does not deserve any rebuttal other than to mention that the US has adocumented historyof family separation of migrants and deaths in custody.
Likewise, the worlds rogue nation does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and similar institutions, while reproaching Caracas for attempting to misuse international law. If anything, the Maduro government has gone out of its way defending international law withinitiativesupholding the UN Charter.
Social welfare
The US report scolds Venezuela for a minimum wage under the poverty line. Yet, its own federal minimum wage has been $7.25/hour since 2009; insufficient to lift a fulltime worker out of poverty.
A UN special rapporteur for human rights estimated that sanctions more properly unilateral coercive measures by the US and allies have caused over100,000 excess deathsin Venezuela. Yet purported human rights NGOsAmnesty International(AI),Human Rights Watch(HRC), and theWashington Office on Latin American(WOLA) omit this glaring human toll in their reports on human rights in Venezuela.
Predictably, they make nearly identical evaluations of the Venezuelan human rights situation as does the US-dominatedOrganization of American States(OAS) and the US State Department itself. Their reports (AI,HRW,WOLA, US,OAS) either ignore or at best make passing references to the sanctions. No mention is made of theillegality of sanctions under international lawthey are a form of collective punishment.
In other contexts, the NGOs have acknowledged the horrifichuman impactof sanctions. Regardless, they were in a panic that the Trump administration might ease sanctions over the Chevron license, thus rewarding bad behavior. For these soft power apparatchiks of the US imperial project, the pain endured by the Venezuelans is worth it. WOLA has been particularly vocal aboutcounseling againstdirect US military intervention, when sanctions afford an equally lethal but less obvious form of coercion.
Hybrid war on Venezuela
In his first term, Donald Trump levied a $15m bounty on Maduro, framing the Venezuela government as a transnational criminal enterprise tied to terrorism. This lowered the potential threshold for extraordinary US measures. Joe Biden seamlessly upped the bounty to $25m, which Trump then doubled on August 7.
Evidence-free allegations linking the Venezuelan president to thedismantledTren de Aragua drug cartel, thefictitiousCartel of the Suns criminal organization, and the actual Sinaloa Cartel (which is in Mexico) were conveniently used to justify invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which is supposed to be a wartime measure. This is coupled with the designation of drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) andperiodic threatsof US military intervention.
This from the country which is the worldsbiggest laundererof illicit drug money and thelargest consumerof illicit drugs. Even US agenciesrecognizethat very few of these US-bound drugs move through Venezuela.
Most recently, the US deployed an additional 4,000troops and warshipsto the Caribbean and around Latin America. Venezuelarespondedby mobilizing its navy in its territorial waters.
Leading Venezuelan opposition politico Mara Corina Machado expressed herimmense gratitudefor the imperialist measures against her country, while thousands of her compatriots took theopposite stanceand marched in protest. Venezuela-American Michelle Ellner calls theUS policya green light for open-ended US military action abroad, bypassing congressional approval, sidestepping international law.
Weaponizing human rights for regime change
Venezuela is caught in a hybrid war that is as deadly as if it were being bombed. Washingtons strangling of its economy, making wild accusations against its leaders, sponsoring opponents, and threatening armed interventions are all designed to provoke and destabilize. Venezuelas response is best seen as self-defense against an immensely powerful foreign bully that exploits any weakness, imperfection, or lapse in vigilance.
The US weaponizes human rights to overthrow Venezuelas Bolivarian Revolution. Its exaggerated or outright fabricated allegations are echoed by thehuman rights industry. Where problems exist, they must be viewed in the context of US economic warfare, which has strained Venezuelan institutions. North Americans genuinely concerned about Venezuelan human rights should be highly skeptical of corporate media reports and recognize the need to end US interference. Escalating provocations will only necessitate Venezuelas greater defensiveness.
Roger D. Harrisis with the human rights organizationTask Force on the Americas, theUS Peace Council, and theVenezuela Solidarity Network.
Pressenza New York
