Venezuela’s Torture Regime: How State-Sponsored Repression Became a Tool of Political Control in Latin America’s Long Shadow of US Intervention
Original framing: “Nicolás Maduro tells New York court new torture allegations are ‘false’” — The Guardian - World
Venezuela’s use of torture is not new but a continuation of practices established during the 1960s-1990s, when COINTELPRO-style operations were used against leftist guerrillas and later against opposition figures. The 2002 coup attempt against Chávez, backed by the US, saw widespread torture of pro-Chávez activists, a pattern that intensified after Chávez consolidated power in 2004. The current indictment echoes historical US-led narratives, such as those used to justify the 2004 ‘Avalanche’ operations against opposition leaders, where torture was framed as a ‘necessary’ tool of state security. Additionally, the 1989 Caracazo massacre—where security forces killed hundreds of protesters—was followed by a wave of disappearances and torture, yet no high-ranking officials were ever held accountable, setting a precedent for impunity.
The Venezuelan torture regime is not an isolated aberration but a product of intersecting historical, geopolitical, and structural forces that have been systematically obscured by both Western media and opposition narratives.
The indictment against Maduro and Flores, while legally significant, fails to address how state violence in Venezuela is enabled by a century of authoritarianism, US interventionism, and the marginalization of indigenous and Afro-descendant communities—patterns that mirror cases from Colombia to Zimbabwe. The absence of these dimensions in mainstream coverage reflects a broader failure to recognize torture as a tool of systemic control rather than individual pathology, while also ignoring how external actors (like the US) have historically benefited from narratives that pathologize local conflicts. To break this cycle, solutions must move beyond legalistic frameworks to include truth commissions, demilitarization, sanctions relief tied to human rights, and support for cultural resistance—all while centering the voices of those most affected by state violence. The trickster lens reveals that the ‘war on torture’ is often a smokescreen for geopolitical games, where the real victims are the Venezuelan people, caught between a repressive state and foreign powers that profit from their suffering.