(Vatican Radio) UN human rights experts have denounced widespread and systematic use of excessive force and arbitrary detentions against demonstrators in Venezuela. The team’s findings also uncovered other abuses, including violent house raids, torture and ill-treatment of those detained in connection with the protests.Listen to our report: In the absence of a response from the Venezuelan authorities to requests for access, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein deployed a team of human rights officers to conduct remote monitoring of the human rights situation in the country from 6 June to 31 July.The team conducted interviews with victims and their families, witnesses, civil society organisations, journalists, lawyers, doctors, first responders and the Attorney-General’s Office.Witnesses spoke of security forces firing tear gas at close range and without warning at anti-Government protestors.At least 125 people have died since a wave of anti...
(Vatican Radio) UN human rights experts have denounced widespread and systematic use of excessive force and arbitrary detentions against demonstrators in Venezuela. The team’s findings also uncovered other abuses, including violent house raids, torture and ill-treatment of those detained in connection with the protests.
Listen to our report:
In the absence of a response from the Venezuelan authorities to requests for access, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein deployed a team of human rights officers to conduct remote monitoring of the human rights situation in the country from 6 June to 31 July.
The team conducted interviews with victims and their families, witnesses, civil society organisations, journalists, lawyers, doctors, first responders and the Attorney-General’s Office.
Witnesses spoke of security forces firing tear gas at close range and without warning at anti-Government protestors.
At least 125 people have died since a wave of anti-government protests began in April. According to the UN team, security forces are allegedly responsible for at least 46 of those deaths, while pro-Government armed groups, are reportedly responsible for over two dozen others.
Information collected by the team suggests that the armed groups known as “colectivos” routinely disrupt protests on motorcycles, wielding firearms and harassing or shooting at people.
While no official data is available on the number of arrests, estimates suggest that over 5,000 people have been arbitrarily detained, with up to a fifth of them remaining in detention. Some of them are reportedly subject to cruel or degrading treatment by security forces, including electric shocks, beatings, hanging by the wrists, suffocation with gas, and threats of rape or killing of detainees or their families.
High Commissioner Zeid said the responsibility for these human rights violations lies at the highest levels of Government. A full report on the team’s findings is scheduled to be released at the end of August.
Pope Francis waves while traveling by boat in Venice, Italy, for a meeting with young people at the Basilica della Madonna della Salute on April 28, 2024. Earlier in the day he met with inmates at a women's prison. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).Pope Francis opened his one-day visit to Venice on Sunday morning with a meeting with female inmates where he reaffirmed the importance of fraternity and human dignity, noting that prison can be a place of new beginnings. "A stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others, as symbolized by the artistic event you are hosting and the project to which you actively contribute," the pope said to the female inmates gathered in the intimate courtyard of the Women's Prison on the Island of Giudecca. Pope Francis left the Vatican by helicopter at approximately 6:30 in the mo...
Pope Francis prays in front of the tomb of St. Mark the Evangelist inside St. Mark's Basilica in Venice on April 28, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).Pope Francis had a full slate of events Sunday during his day trip to Venice, a trip that tied together a message of unity and fraternity with the artistic patrimony of a city that has been a privileged place of encounter across the centuries. "Faith in Jesus, the bond with him, does not imprison our freedom. On the contrary, it opens us to receive the sap of God's love, which multiplies our joy, takes care of us like a skilled vintner, and brings forth shoots even when the soil of our life becomes arid," the pope said to over 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Mark's Square. Framing his homily during the Mass on the theme of unity, one of the central points articulated throughout several audiences spread across the morning, Pope Francis reminded Christians: "Remaining ...
Prayer house at San Simeone, Italy, September 2012. / Credit: Courtesy of Ricostruttori nella preghieraRome, Italy, Apr 28, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).Across Italy there are houses of prayer run by the Ricostruttori (Reconstructors) community, a Catholic movement dedicated to people who are far from the Church but attracted to spirituality, particularly Eastern meditation and Buddhist practices. The Reconstructors was founded in 1978 by Jesuit Father Gian Vittorio Cappelletto. "During the postconciliar period, the Church was faced with the need for new forms of evangelization and apostolate, to reach out to people who were drifting away," Don Roberto Rondanina, priest and superior of the Ricostruttori, explained to CNA. "It was a time when Eastern meditation, Hinduism, Buddhism, the New Age ... were beginning to spread in Europe." "Father Cappelletto, who lived in Turin, sought to understand the meaning of this 'flight to the East' and felt the need to find new forms of sp...