UN rights experts decry worsening repression in Venezuela in wake of contested election result

Independent U.N. human rights experts say Venezuela’s government has intensified the “harshest and most violent mechanisms of its repressive apparatus” in the wake of the disputed July presidential election. Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, which is closely aligned with President Nicolás Maduro's administration, has declared that he won the July 28 vote. Opposition supporters collected tally sheets from 80% of electronic voting machines suggesting rival candidate Edmundo González had won. The report by U.N. fact-finding mission on Venezuela said it had grounds to believe that arbitrary detentions, sexual violence and torture, and other violations amount to “crime against humanity of persecution on political grounds.”