Human rights groups in Venezuela protest harassment and demand prisoner release

Twenty-five organizations have issued a joint statement expressing solidarity with FUNPAZ (Fuerza, Unión, Justicia, Solidaridad y Paz) and human rights defender Andrés Colmenarez. The groups are protesting a campaign of harassment and disqualification directed at them following their work documenting and reporting human rights violations in Lara state.

The organizations emphasized that documenting abuses is a vital democratic function, especially when domestic institutions fail to act independently. They defended the use of “naming and shaming” as a necessary tool to break the silence around abuses when legal mechanisms for justice are restricted.

Simultaneously, an international campaign titled “Todos Somos Perkins Rocha” has been launched to demand the release of Perkins Rocha, the legal coordinator for Vente Venezuela. Rocha has been under house arrest since February 8. The campaign, involving journalists, artists, and political figures, uses symbolic imagery of electronic shackles to denounce systematic political persecution and the erosion of the rule of law in the country.