Thursday, May 19, 2016

Warned UNHRC in 2014 that Venezuela would spiral out of control and that it required their attention

 "These situations in Cuba and Venezuela require the Human Rights Council´s attention before they spiral out of control." - John Suarez to the UN Human Rights Council 9/15/14 

Venezuela under Maduro's regime on May 18, 2016
What is happening now in Venezuela could be foreseen, but the world chose not to act. On September 15, 2014 at the United Nations Human Rights Council  under Item 4 on the agenda I read a statement ( 1 hour 33 minutes and 59 seconds) that made the case that the failure to address human rights issues nonviolently in Syria had ended in disaster and that this would be repeated elsewhere  where human rights are systematically violated. Two examples offered up as future regional disasters where Venezuela and Cuba. Repressive regimes attempted to disrupt the presentation with points of order, but the full statement was eventually read out and is reproduced below.  

Text taken from Directorio Archives

Item 4
United Nations Human Rights Council
September 15, 2014 

We welcome the conclusions of the Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic and particularly the observation that what was a “conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic, once between the Government and a limited number of anti-Government armed groups, has morphed into multiple shifting conflicts involving countless actors and frontlines,” and we are in complete agreement with the report that “the regional conflagration, of which the commission has long warned, illustrates the fallacy of a military solution.” 
The disaster in Syria did not arise yesterday but is the long term result of the failure to have human rights respected there.

Unfortunately other areas exist that can also unexpectedly erupt into regional disasters. Years of freedom of expression and association being systematically outlawed, arbitrary detentions constant, along with politically motivated beatings, torture and extrajudicial killings lead to destabilizing responses.

The 2012 deaths of Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero have not been cleared up. Sonia Garro, a lady in white, remains jailed without trial since 2012 and Angel Yunier Remon Arzuaga, a musician, has been jailed for his dissenting views since March 2013. 
Bassil Dacosta, Robert Redman, Génesis Carmona and Geraldine Moreno were the first shot and killed by government agents in their country in 2014.

Since February 12, 2014 forty three youths have been killed while protesting rising insecurity and vanishing rights in their country. Over 5000 have been injured and 3,000 arbitrarily detained. Investigations are needed into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 43 Venezuelan students and Cuba’s Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero.
Ms. Garro and Mr. Arzuaga should be freed.

These situations in Cuba and Venezuela require the Human Rights Council´s attention before they spiral out of control. 

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