As if we needed yet another reason to believe the United Nations is a completely useless body of hypocritical bureaucrats, the global body just handed Venezuela a seat on its human rights council.
By the final vote, the socialist country -- where political dissidents are routinely murdered and surgery patients are often required to provide their own scalpels thanks to the socialist government -- beat out neighboring Costa Rica for a seat on the 47-member panel of nations, largely thanks to votes from human rights champions Russia, China and Cuba.
The vote came amid warnings and heavy criticism from human rights groups around the world pointing out the continued atrocities by the brutal Maduro regime, which has been deemed an illegitimate government by the Trump administration.
The laundry list of human rights violations in Venezuela is hardly a secret. From the State Department’s 2018 Human Rights Report:
Human rights issues included extrajudicial killings by security forces, including colectivos (government-sponsored armed groups); torture by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; and political prisoners. The government restricted free expression and the press by routinely blocking signals, and interfering with the operations of, or shutting down, privately owned television, radio, and other media outlets. Libel, incitement, and inaccurate reporting were subject to criminal sanctions. The government used violence to repress peaceful demonstrations. Other issues included restrictions on political participation in the form of presidential elections in May that were not free or fair; pervasive corruption and impunity among all security forces and in other national and state government offices, including at the highest levels; trafficking in persons; and the worst forms of child labor, which the government made minimal efforts to eliminate.
The government took no effective action to investigate officials who committed human rights abuses, and there was impunity for such abuses.