ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay, May 20 (UPI) -- Nicolás Maduro's regime has transformed Venezuela into an international criminal organization, using state institutions for internal repression, looting of national resources and collaboration with organized crime networks operating throughout the region, according to a report presented to the Organization of American States.
The 2024-2025 Annual Report by the CASLA Institute, issued last week, also reveals that international actors such as Cuba and Russia have played a key role in strengthening the Maduro regime's repressive structures, consolidating what the report describes as a transnational criminal state.
Outgoing OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro stated that "the regime of Nicolás Maduro has committed a new series of crimes against humanity," reiterating that these acts follow a structural pattern that should be investigated by the International Criminal Court.
"There is already sufficient evidence to prosecute the chain of command of the Venezuelan regime," Almagro added, identifying Maduro as the principal party responsible.
Tamara Suju, executive director of the CASLA Institute, which prepared the report, said that the Venezuelan regime is a tyranny structured as a transnational criminal network, where state institutions "have been captured and systematically used for illicit purposes and internal and external repression."
"This structure combines elements of political, economic and criminal control sustained by a political-military leadership that maintains its power through the use of judicial, intelligence, police and military bodies," Suju said.
Chapter 2 of the report details the convergence between the state apparatus and transnational organized crime networks.
Former officials and dissidents testified that the regime's primary motivation to preserve power is aided through illicit enrichment. Members of the regime's leadership own properties and businesses through front men, both in Venezuela and abroad, facilitating money laundering from illicit activities.
The regime has established alliances with criminal groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the Colombian National Liberation Army, or ELN, which engage in drug trafficking, contraband smuggling and illegal mining.
The report highlights the participation of high-ranking Venezuelan government officials, involved in the so-called "Cartel of the Suns." in drug trafficking operations, facilitating the transportation of drugs through Venezuela to international markets.
In addition, with the permission of the regime, criminal mega-gangs, such as the "Tren de Aragua," operate across Venezuelan borders, establishing operations in other Latin American countries. These gangs are involved in crimes such as extortion, kidnapping, human trafficking and arms trafficking.
According to the report, international actors like Cuba and Russia have played a key role in strengthening the Maduro regime, shielding it from external pressure and sustaining its criminal structure.
While Cuba has provided the ideological and technical basis for repression, the Russian government has reinforced the logistical, military and geopolitical apparatus, allowing Maduro to maintain power and expand his networks with greater impunity and sophistication, the report said.
Almagro expressed his concern about the situation in the country due to the high level of repression. He noted that the repression worsened last year during the electoral period and afterward, when Maduro refused to acknowledge defeat in the July 28 presidential elections.
The CASLA report describes how the Maduro regime's intelligence agencies carry out surveillance, arbitrary detentions and torture of political opponents, activists and ordinary citizens. They are also accused of operating clandestine detention centers where serious human rights violations are committed.
"Crimes against humanity in Venezuela have been systematically used as a tool of political and social control, executed both inside and outside the country. Every branch of the state bears responsibility for the planning, incitement, omission and execution of these crimes. In the context of the elections, the regime needed to intimidate and terrorize the population to avoid losing control, as it had been preparing electoral fraud from the outset," CASLA's Suju said.
The report concludes that Venezuela operates as a "terrorist state," using terror as public policy to silence dissent and maintain power.
The CASLA Institute called on the international community not to recognize the upcoming regional and legislative elections scheduled for May 25, arguing that they lack legitimacy due to previous electoral fraud.
