Venezuelan Defensoría del Pueblo joins inter‑institutional drive to reform criminal justice

On 12 June, the Defensoría del Pueblo, led by defender Eglée González Lobato, participated in a government‑called inter‑institutional deployment to revamp Venezuela’s criminal‑justice system. The delegation met at the Palacio de Justicia in Caracas to review a large batch of court files and joined work tables with deputies, the public prosecutor’s office, the Ministry of Penitentiary Services, criminal‑competent tribunals and the Public Defense. Sixty appointed defenders were sent to prisons, judicial circuits and preventive‑detention centres in eight states – Aragua, Carabobo, Miranda, La Guaira, Falcón, Lara and Zulia – with the operation continuing on 13‑14 June.

Human‑rights NGO Provea called on the Defensoría to explain how it will safeguard detainees’ rights after alleging that the U.S. Southern Command is operating in Venezuela’s Bolívar state with the consent of government minister Delcy Rodríguez. Provea demanded transparency on the agreement, the operation’s human‑cost and assurances that extrajudicial killings will not recur, urging the attorney general to follow the Minnesota Protocol for investigating deaths.