"The IACHR takes note of the recent announcements by the State of Venezuela about some openness to international cooperation in the fight against impunity for serious human rights violations. For these efforts to be effective, the State must rebuild the separation and independence of the public powers", the organization said in a statement.

In the document, the IACHR advances that "on April 23, President Nicolás Maduro announced that the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which is currently investigating alleged crimes against humanity in the country, will install an office in Caracas, from which it will cooperate with the national authorities".

The Venezuelan government announced that "the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (headed by Völker Türk) will be invited to have a team on the ground again" after "this office was expelled on February 15, a fact that was condemned by the Commission", it adds.

"The State's openness to receive the two offices must be accompanied by a real and serious commitment to the fight against impunity. According to a report by the Panel of Independent International Experts of the Organization of American States (OAS), in a sample of 183 cases of conduct likely to constitute crimes against humanity, there were only 12 trials, or a mere 6%", it adds.

The IACHR also stresses that "in 52.5% of these cases the State did not initiate any legal proceedings" and that "the main challenge in the fight against impunity in Venezuela lies in the co-optation of the judiciary and the Public Prosecutor's Office by the executive power".

"On several occasions, the IACHR and other international organizations have denounced the irregular appointment of judges to the Supreme Court of Justice and the head of the Public Prosecutor's Office, pressures to decide cases or close proceedings, the high level of provisional status of judges and the lack of guarantees of tenure in their positions, the admission of evidence under duress, the recurrent change of prosecutors, as well as the lack of judicial control and transparency over their actions", it adds.

In the statement, the IACHR "reaffirms that impunity has led to the repetition of human rights violations and has allowed the establishment in the country of a policy of selective repression aimed at discouraging the political participation of people who are opponents or who are perceived as such".

"A genuine commitment to the fight against impunity requires the State to adopt immediate measures to re-establish the separation and independence of the Public Prosecutor's Office, the judicial system in general and the other public powers", it concludes.

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