On February 22, the European Union on 19 Venezuelan officials, lawmakers and members of the security forces in response to parliamentary elections the EU saw as rigged to favor Nicolas Maduro.
The sanctioned individuals were targeted for "their role in acts and decisions undermining democracy and the rule of law in the country, or as a result of serious human rights violations." The EU sanctions include travel bans and asset freezes.
Venezuela's foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, .
"To use false arguments against honorable citizens in reaction to the frustration of a group of member states of the European Union for the manifest ineffectiveness of their actions to force a change of government by force in Venezuela, is nothing more than another reckless decision, with the sole intention of negatively affecting the political dialogue taking place in the country," Arreaza wrote.
He also said the sanctions were illegal and “a sort of arrogant affront to the United Nations” after the U.N. special rapporteur urged that unilateral sanctions against Venezuela be lifted given their effects on the country.
The debate over sanctions is complex, but it’s misleading for Arreaza to claim that the sanctions are based on “false arguments.”
The EU Council that it imposed sanctions because Venezuela’s legislative elections were "a missed opportunity for democracy, were held without a national agreement on electoral conditions, and failed to comply with the international standards for a democratic process." It also said that Venezuela’s lack of respect for human rights meant that its “citizens feared arrest and persecution, including of their families, for exercising their fundamental rights and freedoms.”
All 19 sanctioned individuals were accused of involvement in such abuses.
Take Remigio Ceballos, one of the individuals sanctioned. He has been the operational commander of Venezuela’s armed forces (CEOFANB) since 2017. CEOFANB controls the Bolivarian National Armed Forces and National Guard. As the EU stated, “various sources, including the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, attribute human rights violations to FANB and the Bolivarian National Guard.”
, a United Nations-backed fact-finding mission stated that Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials were involved in systemic human rights abuses against government opponents between 2014 and 2018.
The U.N. report stated that two security forces – the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigation Corps (CICP) and the Special Action Forces (FAES) of the National Bolivarian Police (PNB) – were responsible for 59 percent of all the killings by Venezuelan security forces that were reviewed. The report said the FAES should be dismantled and its chain of command held accountable. The EU also sanctioned the current director of FAES, Jose Miguel Dominguez Ramirez.
Along with protesters, Maduro’s regime has persecuted opposition politicians and activists. Hundreds of people have been arrested or exiled (although Maduro that he was pardoning 110 of them).
During protests in 2017 that followed the Venezuelan Supreme Court’s dissolving the parliament, Human Rights Watch and the Penal Forum (Foro Penal), a Venezuelan human rights organization, issued a which found that at least 314 people were victims of human rights violations by Venezuelan security forces and armed pro-government groups (known as colectivos). The report concluded that “the abuses have been part of a systematic practice by the Venezuelan security forces.” That conclusion was consistent with the findings of an August 2017 report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The EU imposed sanctions on several members of Venezuela’s Supreme Court for undermining “democracy and the rule of law in Venezuela” through “actions, statements and rulings that have usurped the constitutional powers of the National Assembly and undermined the opposition’s electoral rights.”
Last year, Venezuela's Supreme Court without members of the opposition-led Congress, . The court also removed the leaders of three opposition parties and appointed leaders accused by the opposition of conspiring to support the president.
In July 2020, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights "the recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Justice diminish the possibility of building conditions for credible and democratic electoral processes."