The Panel of Independent International Experts on the possible commission of crimes against humanity in Venezuela warned that The country is going through its most oppressive period since 2014 and that state repression not only persists, but has become more sophisticated, covert and difficult to document, despite the actions of international organizations such as the International Criminal Court.
The report, titled Silenced Voices: The Collapse of Civil Society and the Failure of International Deterrence in Venezuela and published on December 1, concludes that international intervention did not produce any real deterrent effect on the Venezuelan authorities.
On the contrary, he points out that repressive dynamics adapted and consolidated during the period in which the ICC opened preliminary examinations, advanced to a formal investigation and established a technical office in Caracas.
Escalation in figures that denies any improvement
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The panel highlights that, between 2014 and 2025, the following were recorded:
1,634 cases of torture, of which 1,116 occurred after the ICC Prosecutor’s Office began to formally act.
116 forced disappearances, 78 of them after the start of the intervention of the international court.
18,582 arbitrary arrests, including an unprecedented peak in 2024, when more than 2,200 people were detained in nine days, following the July presidential election.
Furthermore, at the end of 2025, 884 political prisoners remained in detention centers, Although the panel warns that this decrease, compared to 1,794 in 2024, does not reflect an improvement, but rather the impact of fear and the silencing of complaints.
The 3 phases of the evolution of repression in Venezuela
According to the document, The repression in Venezuela evolved in three phases:
2014–2018: consolidation of an apparatus of state violence, with thousands of extrajudicial executions and the use of the military, police and intelligence to quell protests and persecute opponents.
2019–2021: The State modified its methods to reduce the visual impact of violence and moved attacks to closed spaces, such as courts and intelligence facilities, while implementing judicial reforms that, according to experts, were superficial and only reinforced impunity.
2022–2025: total institutionalization of violence, with a dual system—legal and clandestine—that allows persecution, detention, torture and silencing of citizens, activists, journalists and political leaders.
The panel maintains that this process formed a “system of state terror”, where courts, police forces, intelligence forces and armed groups act in an articulated manner.
Collapse of civil society
One of the conclusions of the report is that Venezuelan civil society is on the verge of collapse. The approval of the so-called anti-NGO law, raids, digital surveillance, threats and the criminalization of international cooperation have drastically reduced the ability of organizations to document abuses.
This siege explains the drop in the numbers reported in 2025: the repression would have continued or intensified, but the conditions no longer exist to register cases nor for victims to dare to report.
The panel also documents extraterritorial persecution, with attacks, threats and surveillance against activists in countries such as Colombia and Chile. This phenomenon, he warned, is expanding.
Failure of international deterrence
The report also criticized the strategy of the International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Office. The policy of “cooperation” with the Venezuelan regime, added to the high-level visits and the establishment of a technical office in Caracas, generated a counterproductive effect.
Experts said authorities were allowed to project an image of reform while perfecting mechanisms of repression.
Although the panel recognized that The ICC has formally moved forward with its investigation, urges the Prosecutor’s Office to issue arrest warrants against those most responsible because it believes that only forceful judicial measures could stop the violence and initiate a real process of accountability.
The panel asked a “coordinated, immediate and sustained” international response to protect victims, rebuild civic space and guarantee justice after more than a decade of systematic violations.
“Venezuela has entered the darkest phase of its recent history,” he stated.
