Venezuela’s National Guard Linked to Killings, Torture and Repression, UN Probe Finds on 11 December 2025

Key facts

• Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) has been implicated in a decade-long pattern of killings, arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual violence targeting protesters and opponents of President Nicolás Maduro.
• The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission says the GNB has played a central role in systematic repression since 2014.
• The GNB used excessive force, including the improper use of lethal weapons, during peak periods of protest in 2014, 2017, 2019, and 2024.
• Investigators documented mass and targeted arbitrary detentions, physical violence during arrests, planting of evidence, torture, and sexual and gender-based violence inside GNB facilities.
• The report found the GNB was a central actor in the commission of persecution on political grounds, which is a crime against humanity.
• The military force also played a key role in the 2024 post-election “Operation Tun Tun” raids.
• The report identifies a pattern of structural impunity sustained by systemic failures within the Venezuelan judicial system.
• The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela was established by the UN Human Rights Council in September 2019.
• The Mission has also focused on investigating the human rights situation surrounding the disputed 2024 presidential elections and on violence by pro-government militias known as “colectivos”.