‘They pissed off the wrong mother’: Venezuelan women organize for justice

The personal accounts of Urselis Valdez, Lina Rivera, Carmen Arroyo, and Miyanllela Fernández highlight the human toll of extrajudicial killings in Venezuela, a country where such killings and other human rights abuses are all too common. These mothers' stories represent a larger problem, with a pattern of institutional violence that primarily targets young, marginalized males in slums. The situation has become so dire that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in Venezuela. 

Reports by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and a UN independent fact-finding committee have determined that the government has been using excessive force, and they have called for the government to disband the special forces unit of the Bolivarian National Police. Despite these calls for action, extrajudicial killings have continued, with hundreds of cases documented by civil society organizations in recent years.

Assignment for EL PAIS