- Venezuelan authorities commit enforced disappearances as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population, particularly those they consider dissidents, which amount to crimes against humanity.
- Out of the 15 cases of people forcibly disappeared that Amnesty International has documented since July 2024, 11 remain subjected to enforced disappearance, including Venezuelans and citizens of the United States, France, Spain, Ukraine, Colombia and Uruguay.
- The International Criminal Court and national courts exercising universal jurisdiction should investigate and – where sufficient evidence exists – prosecute those allegedly responsible, up to the highest authorities.
The Venezuelan authorities have committed, and continue to commit, enforced disappearances as part of their policy of repression of dissidents and those they perceive as such, Amnesty International said in its report Detentions without a trace: The crime of enforced disappearance in Venezuela, which analyses the situation of 15 individuals forcibly disappeared between the presidential election of 28 July 2024 and 15 June 2025.
Based on this new report and the organization’s body of research over the past decade, Amnesty International concludes that these serious human rights violations and crimes under international law are committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population in Venezuela.
“Once again, the Venezuelan authorities are demonstrating that their cruelty knows no bounds. Enforced disappearance means not knowing where your family member is, what condition they are in, or even if they are alive or dead. It is a crime that puts the life and integrity of the forcibly disappeared person at grave risk and subjects their family to constant suffering, marked by the uncertainty, anguish and daily torment of being left to wonder their loved one’s whereabouts,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“The international community cannot normalize or ignore the human rights crisis in Venezuela. The scale and gravity of the crimes committed in the country – particularly the enforced disappearance of people – must stir the conscience of the world, and propel international justice into action. As an international crime, it not only entails the responsibility of the state, but also the criminal responsibility of the individual officials who commit it.”
The international community cannot normalize or ignore the human rights crisis in Venezuela. The scale and gravity of the crimes committed in the country – particularly the enforced disappearance of people – must stir the conscience of the world, and propel international justice into action.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
Amnesty research is grounded on international human rights law, according to which three elements must be cumulatively present for an enforced disappearance to be established: (1) the detention of a person; (2) by agents of the State, or persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State; (3) the official denial of the detention or the concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the detained person.
The time frame of the report begins with the presidential election of 28 July 2024 and covers the repression that followed the disputed result announced by Nicolás Maduro’s government. The government’s strategies to suppress expressions in favor of political change followed a familiar and recurring pattern, although on a previously unseen scale: 25 people lost their lives, at least 2,200 people were arbitrarily and unlawfully deprived of their liberty, and possibly hundreds of them were subjected to enforced disappearance with their detention denied or their fate or whereabouts concealed. In the case of the 15 people whose enforced disappearance was investigated by Amnesty International, the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM, in Spanish), the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN, in Spanish) and the Bolivarian National Guard stand out as the main state agencies responsible for such arbitrary detentions.
The whereabouts of 11 of the 15 forcibly disappeared persons, whose cases were investigated by Amnesty International, remain unknown. They are Andrés Martínez, Damián Rojas, Danner Barajas, Dennis Lepaje, Eudi Andrade, Fabián Buglione, Jorgen Guanares, Jose María Basoa, Lucas Hunter, Rory Branker and Yevhenii Petrovish Trush. Only the whereabouts of four people were established: Alfredo Díaz, who was subjected to enforced disappearance for four days; Eduardo Torres, who was forcibly disappeared for eight days; and Rosa Chirinos and Raymar Pérez, who were forcibly disappeared for four months.
At the time this report was finalised, at least 46 people were possibly forcibly disappeared, according to information collected by the organization Foro Penal.
Arbitrary detentions and concealment of whereabouts
In most of the instances analysed by Amnesty International, the detention appeared to be arbitrary because there was no legal basis for it. In addition, the motivation behind the detention in practically all the cases was political: the victims were detained for having participated in protests, for having transported people with a high political profile, or for being members of opposition political parties, activists, critical journalists, or human rights defenders.
For example, it is presumed that the detention of Rory Branker, arrested on 20 February 2025 by SEBIN, and whose whereabouts remain unknown, was intended to punish the media outlet La Patilla, where he works as an editor, and which is known for having an editorial stance critical of the government.
In general, the authorities denied information about the detentions of all these individuals. Where they did acknowledge them, they then denied information about their fate or whereabouts. Their families tirelessly visited government agencies, prosecutors’ offices, the judiciary, and various detention centers to try to locate their loved ones, receiving no response. The DGCIM headquarters in Boleíta, the SEBIN headquarters known as El Helicoide, and the Rodeo I detention center – all located in or around Caracas – stand out as the locations more frequently used by the state to hold victims of enforced disappearance.
The wife and colleagues of Eduardo Torres, a lawyer working for the human rights organization PROVEA, arbitrarily detained on 9 May 2025 and whose whereabouts were unknown for days, filed complaints with the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Ombudsperson’s Office, unsuccessfully attempting to challenge his detention, and touring multiple detention centers – including El Helicoide – in an effort to confirm his detention and to locate him. After a press conference in which PROVEA denounced his enforced disappearance, the Attorney General publicly acknowledged his detention, albeit without revealing his location. Finally, on 17 May, SEBIN guards confirmed that he was in their custody.
In the cases of these 15 individuals, not only were they systematically denied due process and the right to a fair trial, but certain mechanisms of the judicial apparatus also served to confer the veneer of legality to essentially arbitrary and unlawful procedures and to facilitate enforced disappearances. Among the most emblematic elements of these mechanisms, Amnesty International identified: hearings held in secret; the imposition of public defenders who would not or could not act as independent legal counsels; the use of courts lacking independence, such as the so-called Courts against Terrorism; the de facto annulment of the detained persons’ habeas corpus; and the instrumentalization of the Public Prosecutor’s Office as an organ of political persecution, under the guise of the fight against alleged ‘terrorism’. On top of this, in many cases, state authorities also publicly identified and stigmatised the victims.
In addition, there is evidence that several of the forcibly disappeared persons may have been subjected to torture or other ill-treatment in order to obtain or fabricate “confessions”, or force to provide “testimony” incriminating others.
Detentions and enforced disappearances of foreigners
After the 28 July 2024 election, Nicolás Maduro’s government announced the arrest of more than 150 “foreign mercenaries”. The Venezuelan authorities appear to be using this practice to justify their narratives about “foreign conspiracies” and as a bargaining chip for use in negotiations with other countries. Amnesty International documented several cases of people whose detention appeared to be motivated primarily by their nationality.
“We remind any officials who may be involved in enforced disappearances – including of foreigners – that the prohibition of this crime is absolute and does not allow for exceptions, even combatting supposed ‘terrorism’. Enforced disappearance is a crime under international law with no statute of limitations,” said Agnès Callamard.
Enforced disappearance is a crime under international law with no statute of limitations
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
Yevhenii Petrovich Trush, a 19-year-old Ukrainian who lives with autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, was arrested without apparent cause while seeking asylum at the Atanasio Girardot International Bridge, Táchira state, on the border with Colombia. Since 20 October 2024, his fate and whereabouts have been unknown despite the multiple efforts and searches carried out by the mother of his Venezuelan partner.
The Spanish citizens Andrés Martínez and Jose María Basoa were arrested in September 2024, on accusation of allegedly belonging to the Spanish intelligence service (National Intelligence Center, CNI in Spanish) and being part of an alleged network of “mercenaries” whose objective would be to “attack” the Venezuelan government, according to statements made by the Minister of the Interior at a press conference days later. Both men had entered the country for tourism purposes, and the Spanish authorities denied any link between them and the CNI. To date, they remain forcibly disappeared.
Part of a widespread and systematic attack
In light of the ongoing investigation by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) into crimes against humanity in Venezuela, Amnesty International’s analysis also focused on enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the ICC.
Article 7 of the Statute provides that prohibited acts, including the “enforced disappearance of persons”, amount to crimes against humanity when committed “as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack”.
In 2019, Amnesty International established the existence of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population in Venezuela, finding that crimes against humanity had been committed since at least 2014. At the time, the organisation identified arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial executions, and injuries due to excessive use of force as elements of a state-led policy of repression. It later also included the possible crime of persecution.
In its new report, Amnesty International concludes that at least some of the documented acts of enforced disappearance were committed as part of the widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population in Venezuela, and also amount to crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute.
Recommendations
“In the face of the relentless commission of crimes under international law, including crimes against humanity, and the prevailing impunity in the country, we call on the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC to make firm progress on the situation in Venezuela, and consider including the crime against humanity of enforced disappearance in its investigation,” said Agnès Callamard.
“The Venezuelan authorities must end the practice of enforced disappearances without excuses or delay. Families have a right to know the fate and whereabouts of all those who have been forcibly disappeared. Moreover, all persons arbitrarily detained for political reasons must be released immediately.”
“States should use all diplomatic and multilateral channels at their disposal to pressure the Venezuelan authorities to disclose the fate and whereabouts of those detained, and to release all those arbitrarily detained. They should also exercise universal or other forms of extraterritorial jurisdiction to investigate and, where sufficient evidence exists, prosecute any suspected perpetrator of enforced disappearance.”
States should use all diplomatic and multilateral channels at their disposal to pressure the Venezuelan authorities to disclose the fate and whereabouts of those detained, and to release all those arbitrarily detained.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“The Venezuelan authorities are attempting to suffocate civil society, which, against all odds, bravely endures the attacks and the threats. Amnesty calls on states to strengthen technical, political and financial support for Venezuelan human rights defenders, journalists, and civil society organisations operating inside and outside Venezuela.”
Background information:
The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance defines enforced disappearance as “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law”.
The Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons defines it in a very similar way, as “the act of depriving a person or persons of his or their freedom, in whatever way, perpetrated by agents of the state or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of the state, followed by an absence of information or a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the whereabouts of that person, thereby impeding his or her recourse to the applicable legal remedies and procedural guarantees.”
In September 2018, the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC opened a preliminary examination into possible crimes against humanity committed in Venezuela. This examination, which was initiated at the request of the Prosecutor at the time, was supported in 2018 by a referral from six States Parties to the Court: Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay and Peru, which were later joined by Uruguay and Ecuador in 2024 and 2025, respectively. In 2020, the Office of the Prosecutor concluded that there were reasonable grounds to investigate crimes against humanity since at least April 2017.
For the time being, the ICC is investigating crimes against humanity of deprivation of liberty or other serious deprivation of physical liberty; torture; rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; and persecution of a group or collectivity with its own identity based on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender or other reasons universally recognized as unacceptable.
For further information or to arrange an interview, please contact press@amnesty.org