State Terrorism 2.0: The Case of Venezuela.

Abstract

On August 15, 2024, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued a pronouncement, signed by its Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression (RELE), in which they qualified the actions of the Venezuelan authorities, after the presidential elections, as “State Terrorism”. The highest regional organization on the matter, which collaborated in processes of Memory, Truth and Justice on the military dictatorships that devastated the region in the second half of the last century, does not use this qualification lightly. He has similarly described recent actions on the part of the Nicaraguan authorities. The objective of this article is to establish what could be the characteristics of State terrorism adapted to the 21st century, based on the Venezuelan situation.