Human Rights Watch: Venezuela Using COVID-19 to Crack Down

A doctor takes a blood sample for a quick COVID-19 test from a handcuffed inmate at a comprehensive diagnosis center that set up to attend patients with new coronavirus in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Aug 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
A doctor takes a blood sample for a quick COVID-19 test from a handcuffed inmate at a comprehensive diagnosis center that set up to attend patients with new coronavirus in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Aug 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
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Human Rights Watch: Venezuela Using COVID-19 to Crack Down

A doctor takes a blood sample for a quick COVID-19 test from a handcuffed inmate at a comprehensive diagnosis center that set up to attend patients with new coronavirus in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Aug 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
A doctor takes a blood sample for a quick COVID-19 test from a handcuffed inmate at a comprehensive diagnosis center that set up to attend patients with new coronavirus in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Aug 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Venezuelan security forces and authorities under President Nicolás Maduro have used the coronavirus as an excuse to crack down on dissenting voices on social media and even in private messages, Human Rights Watch reported Friday.

The New York-based rights group said Venezuelan authorities have targeted dozens of journalists, healthcare workers, human rights lawyers and political opponents critical of the government's response to the pandemic.

Some critics have been physically abused to levels bordering on torture, the group said in a report listing 162 such cases from March through June. Human Rights Watch says it verified several complaints through interviews with alleged victims, while also citing reports by Venezuelan media and human rights advocates.

"In Venezuela today, you can´t even share a private message criticizing the Maduro government via WhatsApp without fear of being prosecuted," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.

"The state of emergency has emboldened security forces and armed pro-government groups that already have a record of torture and extrajudicial killings to crack down even more harshly on Venezuelans," Vivanco said.

Venezuela´s Ministry of Communications did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment. Authorities loyal to Maduro often dismiss critics of its human rights record as outside interests led by the United States interfering in the nation´s internal affairs.

Venezuela was in an economic and political crisis before the pandemic. Maduro has come under heightened international pressure to step down since early 2019, when U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó mounted a challenge, claiming the socialist leader illegitimately clings to power following a fraudulent election.

Maduro´s government instituted emergency measures in mid-March shortly after Venezuela´s first coronavirus cases were diagnosed, closing many businesses, limiting travel inside the country, and grounding commercial air travel.

Officials so far have reported roughly 350 coronavirus deaths and 42,000 illnesses, but medical workers and government critics say that is an undercount due to the lack of testing.

Human Rights Watch said Maduro´s government often evokes an "overly broad" anti-hate law approved in 2017 as an instrument for its crackdown, which is enforced by a judicial system lacking independence from Maduro.

The group cited the case of Iván Virgüez, a 65-year-old human rights lawyer arrested in mid-April after a Facebook post critical of how migrants returning to Venezuela were held in quarantine centers.

Over the two days he was in custody, police handcuffed him for two hours under the sun to a metal tube 2 feet off the ground, Human Rights Watch said, adding that he was denied a bathroom for 26 hours.

Virgüez was charged with public disturbance, contempt, defamation of authorities, and instigation of rebellion. He remains under house arrest, allowed to leave his home only for medical visits, Human Rights Watch says.

Hospital worker Andrea Sayago in April sent colleagues a warning on the WhatsApp messaging service of their first coronavirus cases. Photos of test results she sent ended up on social media and hospital administrators forced her to resign, saying her message constituted "terrorism," the human rights group reported.

Venezuela's intelligence police later questioned her for several hours, and she's been charged with misuse of privileged information and put under house arrest pending trial, Human Rights Watch said.

Security forces in March entered the home of Darvinson Rojas, a 25-year-old freelance journalist, and activist, without a search warrant, claiming an anonymous tip reporting a coronavirus case. Human Rights Watch said Rojas tweeted a tally of coronavirus cases collected from various official sources, which gave a total number of cases higher than the ones authorities reported.

The organization said authorities roughed up Rojas' family members, seized his cellphone and computer, and detained him for nearly two weeks. He's charged with inciting hatred for publishing false information aimed at destabilizing the government.



Railway Collision in Eastern India Kills 15

Onlookers watch as rescuers work after a cargo train rammed into Kanchanjunga Express, a passenger train, near New Jalpaiguri station, West Bengal state, India, Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Diptendu Dutta)
Onlookers watch as rescuers work after a cargo train rammed into Kanchanjunga Express, a passenger train, near New Jalpaiguri station, West Bengal state, India, Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Diptendu Dutta)
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Railway Collision in Eastern India Kills 15

Onlookers watch as rescuers work after a cargo train rammed into Kanchanjunga Express, a passenger train, near New Jalpaiguri station, West Bengal state, India, Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Diptendu Dutta)
Onlookers watch as rescuers work after a cargo train rammed into Kanchanjunga Express, a passenger train, near New Jalpaiguri station, West Bengal state, India, Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Diptendu Dutta)

A freight train smashed into the rear of a stationary passenger train in India's West Bengal state on Monday, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens, police said, in an accident that railway authorities blamed on a disregarded signal.

Media showed images of the pile-up, with containers from the goods train strewn nearby, and one carriage left nearly vertical after the accident, which comes just over a year after a signaling error caused one of India's worst rail crashes.

At least 15 bodies have been pulled from the mangled carriages, Abhishek Roy, a senior police official in the eastern state's district of Darjeeling, the site of the accident, told Reuters.
Nearly 30 people were injured and rescue teams from the police and national disaster response force were working with doctors and residents of the area to clear debris from the derailed carriages, Roy added.

The goods train hit the Kanchanjunga Express travelling to Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, from the northeastern state of Tripura, driving three carriages of the passenger train off the rails.
It was not immediately clear how many passengers were on board at the time.

Rescuers used iron rods and ropes to work free one carriage of the passenger train that had been swept upwards to lodge on the roof of the freight train by the impact of the collision.

The dead included the driver of the freight train and a guard on the passenger train, Jaya Varma Sinha, the head of the railway board that runs the countrywide network, told reporters.

The accident happened after the driver of the freight train disregarded a signal and hit the rear end of the express train, Sinha added.

Rescue work has been completed, Sinha said, while authorities were working to restore traffic, although the damage had been less extensive than initially feared.

"The guard's compartment in the passenger train was badly damaged," he added. "There were two parcel vans attached ahead of it which reduced the extent of damage to passengers."

Nearby residents heard a loud crash and saw the pile-up upon going to investigate, several told the ANI news agency, in which Reuters has a minority stake.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences on the loss of life in the accident and said Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was on his way to the site.