UN finds Venezuela’s National Guard committed crimes against humanity

The Fact-Finding Mission concluded that GNB officials have been responsible for a wide range of grave violations since at least 2014.

Officials of Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) have committed serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity for more than a decade, according to a new report released by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The report, prepared during the mandates of Mission members Marta Valiñas, Francisco Cox Vial and Patricia Tappatá Valdez, provides a detailed examination of the internal structures and chain of command of the GNB. Cox Vial and Tappatá Valdez concluded their terms on 31 October 2025, marking the report as a culmination of years of investigation into abuses by Venezuelan security forces.

The Fact-Finding Mission concluded that GNB officials have been responsible for a wide range of grave violations since at least 2014. These include arbitrary deprivation of life, arbitrary detention, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as sexual and gender-based violence. The abuses were committed during law enforcement operations linked to protests and in the context of targeted political persecution.

“The facts we have documented show the role of the GNB in a pattern of systematic and coordinated repression against opponents or those perceived as such, which has continued for more than a decade,” said Marta Valiñas, Chair of the Fact-Finding Mission. She added that the persistence of these crimes and the lack of justice point to deep structural failures within Venezuela’s accountability and political system, which have entrenched impunity.

The report describes how Venezuela’s “national security” doctrine has increasingly blurred the line between military and policing functions. This fusion has legitimised the militarisation of public security and significantly expanded the role of the GNB in social control and internal repression. A highly centralised chain of command, under the authority of the President as Commander-in-Chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), has enabled unlawful operations to be carried out without effective oversight or internal accountability.

According to the Mission, the GNB used excessive and unlawful force during major protest periods in 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2024. Investigators found reasonable grounds to believe that GNB officials fired weapons indiscriminately, including aiming at vital areas of protesters’ bodies. The report also documents allegations that projectiles were deliberately modified to inflict greater harm.

Beyond the use of force, the Mission recorded widespread and systematic abuses during arrests and detention. These include mass and targeted arbitrary detentions, severe beatings, the planting of evidence, torture and other forms of ill-treatment, and sexual and gender-based violence committed inside GNB facilities used as temporary detention centres.

“The torture, ill-treatment and acts of sexual violence we have verified – including assaults and rape – were not isolated incidents,” Valiñas said. “They form part of a pattern of abuse used to punish, intimidate and break victims.”

The Mission found that the GNB was a central actor in the crime against humanity of persecution on political grounds. Civil society data indicates that the GNB carried out the highest number of politically motivated detentions in 2019 and 2020. The report also highlights the Guard’s key role in the 2024 post-election “Operation Tun Tun,” which targeted political opponents through unfounded accusations of terrorism and incitement to hatred.

A central finding of the report is the existence of structural impunity within Venezuela’s justice system. The Mission identified systemic failures that prevent accountability, including stalled investigations, prolonged procedural paralysis, manipulation or destruction of evidence, deliberate obstruction by the GNB, and prosecutions limited to low-ranking personnel while those most responsible remain untouched.

The Fact-Finding Mission concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that GNB officials, as well as senior military and political authorities, may bear criminal responsibility under Articles 25 and 28 of the Rome Statute. This includes responsibility as direct and indirect perpetrators, co-perpetrators and through command responsibility.

“The Mission has reasonable grounds to believe that GNB officials made essential contributions to the crimes under investigation, including arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, gender-based violence and persecution,” Valiñas said, calling for determined action by national and international accountability mechanisms.