Thousands of people continue to flee Venezuela as the country's political, economic and human rights crises deepen, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Wednesday.
The U.N. report, based on interviews and information gathered from many sources over the past three months, paints a grim picture of Venezuela as a dysfunctional society that maintains itself through threats and intimidation.
An estimated 4.7 million people have fled the country. The U.N. human rights office projects that number will reach 6.5 million by the end of 2020 as a consequence of the deepening crisis.
The report finds Venezuela's economy has contracted by 25.5 percent this year, amounting to a cumulative loss in gross domestic product of 62.2 percent since 2013. It says hyperinflation makes food, medicine and other basic commodities unaffordable. Lack of money and critical supplies, it notes, are causing rising levels of acute malnutrition and nutritional deficiency among children and women.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said her office has received complaints of harassment, threats, and detention by intelligence services and security forces.
"My office has continued to document acts and cases of restriction of public liberties," she said. "2020 will be an election year. It is crucial to guarantee the public freedoms, liberties that are necessary to create elections that are free, impartial, credible, transparent and peaceful."
Human rights monitors visited several detention centers and interviewed dozens of people who have been imprisoned for political motives. Bachelet is calling for the release of all political prisoners, and says cases of torture and extrajudicial killings must be investigated and those responsible should be prosecuted.
Venezuela's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Jorge Valero, disputed the report's findings, saying there is no humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.
"Quite the contrary. We are maintaining good standards of living in spite of the unilateral course of measures imposed by the government of the United States," Valero said. "The government of (U.S. President) Donald Trump has imposed 23 new course of unilateral measures, which are causing death, suffering and pain."
Bachelet agreed that recent U.S. sanctions continue to negatively impact Venezuela's economy and public services at all levels.
