The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado indicated that Cuban interference in the country affects the methods of repression, espionage, persecution, and torture that Nicolás Maduro's regime applies to protesters, journalists, activists, and opponents.
Interviewed on Saturday by León Krauze for the magazine Letras Libres, the leader of Vente Venezuela - and a key figure in the formation of the Unitary Platform for the presidential elections in 2024 - asserted that the advice from the Cuban regime on repressive matters has been known for a long time and has been documented by international and non-governmental organizations.
"There are serious reports from national and international human rights organizations on this matter. Several of the victims have reported the abuses committed [by Cuban repressors]. We have known for a long time that Cuba has had a terrible incidence in multiple areas; in the methods of repression, persecution, espionage, and torture. And we have seen truly heartless things in these last few days," he expressed.
After the elections on July 28, the National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed the victory of Nicolás Maduro, achieving what the opposition claims is an evident fraud, which managed to retain and publish more than 80% of the records demonstrating the overwhelming victory of the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia.
In the face of the enormous electoral fraud orchestrated by the institutions of the Bolivarian regime, Venezuelan civil society took to the streets to protest and demand that the will and popular sovereignty be respected.
However, clinging to power according to the manual of the Cuban totalitarian regime, Chavismo unleashed brutal repression against protesters and opponents. According to the independent international mission to determine facts about Venezuela, established by the UN Human Rights Council, at least 23 deaths have been recorded, most of them from gunshots, in the context of the protests that have shaken the country.
The Mission also documented the detention of at least 1,260 people, including 160 women. For his part, Venezuela's Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, raised the figure to more than 2,200 detainees, many of whom have been labeled as "terrorists."
The penetration of the Cuban regime in the institutions of the Andean country, especially in the armed forces, and in the advising on social control and repression, has been documented for years.
In May, the OAS presented the seventh annual report of the Casla Institute, prepared by independent international experts. The study denounced Cuban assistance in the repressive machinery of Venezuela and requested that the International Criminal Court investigate its intervention and participation in the commission of crimes against humanity in Venezuela.
Tamara Sujú, director of the Casla Institute, read in the presentation of the report the testimony of a Venezuelan torture victim who recounted how they hung her upside down and whipped her feet, causing her nails to come off a few days later. "There was a Cuban who, laughing, said to the person who was whipping me: 'I think you’re not hitting her hard enough. I believe I’m going to have to show you how it's done.' That Cuban brutally whipped my feet."
"After the protests of 2014, Maduro took the lead in the persecution, supported by the experience of the Cuban regime in terms of repression and surveillance, applying intimidating techniques and torture to subdue opponents and dissenters, allowing their participation in the planning and execution of torture and sexual violence," Sujú added.
The Casla Institute identified a semi-secret unit of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) dedicated to training agents in what they call Base Cien. In it, Sujú explained, high-ranking Cuban officials are dedicated to training officials who infiltrate political parties.
"We ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) research team handling the Venezuela case to investigate the Cuban regime for its direct involvement in the formation, planning of repression, persecution, and in the incitement of crimes defined in the Rome Statute," emphasized the director of the Casla Institute after denouncing the Cuban regime to the ICC for crimes against humanity committed in Venezuelan territory.
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