Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on Oct. 8th, 2024

[David Smolansky]

Yes, I am aware. There was the specific case of Lieutenant-Colonel Ojeda in Chile. A former member of the armed forces, he defected, the way thousands of soldiers and police have defected, and was able to flee the country. He was killed in Chile. All the evidence shows that it was planned in Venezuela and he was executed by members who were following orders of the regime.

Transnational repression from Venezuela has become a reality, unfortunately. That is why some democratic opposition leaders who have been able to flee the country don't like to remain in cities close to the border, because there are intel agents in cities like Cúcuta in Colombia, among others.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Mr. Lake.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

Mr. Smolansky, I'm not going to editorialize. I have some comments that are on the record, in writing, about the situation. I'm struck by the contrasts.

The BBC, a couple of weeks ago, wrote the following:

The result has been recognised by President Maduro’s allies including Russia, China and Iran, but not the majority of foreign governments, who have called on the government to release the voting tallies to prove the result.

The article also says:

Multiple foreign governments have said they believe the opposition won July’s election in Venezuela, but stopped short of recognising Mr González as the president.

On Twitter, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken said this in a tweet, which kind of goes in conjunction with what the BBC said: “Venezuelans voted for change. Maduro’s post-election repression has killed or jailed thousands, and winning candidate [González] remains the best hope for democracy. We must not let Maduro and his representatives cling to power by force. The will of the people must be respected.”

Contrast that with the Trudeau government. On the federal government website, under “What Canada is doing”, here's what it says:

Canada is committed to protecting human rights. We’re helping Venezuelans find a negotiated solution to the crisis by promoting a peaceful return to democracy. Canada is supportive of the negotiation process between Venezuela’s democratic forces and the Maduro regime. Canada will support agreements made by the parties at the negotiation process. We strongly encourage the parties to take part in good faith.

What faith do you have that the Maduro regime will be negotiating in good faith, which, according to our website, the Canadian government is putting its faith in?

[David Smolansky]

Edmundo González Urrutia and María Corina Machado, as the leaders of this democratic movement, and in the case of Edmundo González as president-elect, have said and have proposed on different occasions, during the campaign and after the victory of July 28, that they are ready to have a real negotiation with Maduro. But the real negotiation is not to have them in power indefinitely. It is to have a transfer of power, to have a peaceful and orderly transition that will benefit not only Venezuelans but the whole region.

Unfortunately, there has been no response from the regime since July 28. They don't want to negotiate. That's the reality.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you for your time.

I understand that you have to leave at this particular time. We thank you for your presence, and I thank all my colleagues who addressed some questions to you. The answers were very beneficial for us. Thank you again.

[David Smolansky]

Thank you very much for the invitation, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

I would like to invite Ms. Maria Marin to take the floor for five minutes, please.

[Maria Marin, Director, ProboxVE]

[Witness spoke in Spanish, interpreted as follows:]

Thank you very much.

Honourable members of the House of Commons, it is a great honour, privilege and responsibility to appear before you as a representative of Venezuela's civil society.

My name is Maria Virginia Marin. I am 36 years old. I have spent almost six of these years in exile, and this is extremely common. According to UN data, there are at least seven million people who, like me, have been forced to leave their country because of the economic and social crisis, political persecution, lack of opportunities and total disrespect for human rights.

Over the last two decades, the government's hegemony over the communication ecosystem has drastically reduced access to information, with at least 408 media outlets that have closed since 2003. The opposition and independent journalists have been censored in traditional media, so they have sought refuge on social networks, but then they were also attacked on these platforms, with more than 60 sites blocked by the government.

In 2019, I founded ProBox, a non-profit that focuses on identifying and exposing the mechanisms used by Maduro's regime and its counterparts in Cuba, Nicaragua and, increasingly, El Salvador. They use these methods in the online information ecosystem to consolidate control of their political systems. There are massive propaganda strategies and systematic disinformation campaigns by the Venezuelan ruling party. Their goal is to contaminate the conversation on social networks and to distort accusations made by civil society in these spaces.

For example, between 2023 and 2024, on X—formerly Twitter—of the 1,100 trending topics we monitored, the ruling party generated 901, ranging from pro-Maduro propaganda to amplifying anti-sanction narratives, using AI avatars pretending to be journalists and attacking opposition leaders. Many of these posts used the language of gender-based violence. They also defamed human rights activists like Rocio San Miguel and Javier Tarazona, who have both been illegally detained.

After the elections on July 28, the government changed its approach. These former propaganda tools turned into the ideal instrument to carry out a massive persecution campaign to track down any critical voice. Using a false narrative of “peace and justice”, state actors delegitimized citizen protest and used labels like “terrorist” and “fascist” for anyone who opposes the results announced by the pro-Maduro electoral body. The government has also updated an application called VenApp, which, as of July 30, allows people to anonymously identify protestors.

There has also been intensified institutional violence through “operation knock-knock”, a campaign designed to continue repressing any dissident voices on social networks. It displays arrests and alleged confessions, and doxes dissident voices. The goal is to create a widespread climate of terror to silence critical voices. It reveals Maduro's repressive communication resilience, as it's called, which shows up not only in the form of censorship and blocking of platforms such as X, but also in Maduro's ability to find alternative ways to intimidate any opponents.

Unfortunately, our ability to study such operations has become increasingly limited. There have been several closures of APIs such as X in 2013 and tools such as Meta's CrowdTangle in August of this year. All of this has exacerbated the situation. In Latin America, researchers' access is extremely restricted. We face language barriers with content moderators, and most platforms only grant access to institutions and organizations located in the U.S. and Europe. This makes it very difficult to analyze and report on these practices in any language other than English.

In conclusion, I would invite you to work together to close this gap in access to data. As a region, we should be trying hard to reduce this gap. The struggle to restore democracy to Venezuela is a race against the clock. The authoritarian practices of the Maduro regime not only silence millions, but also export a model of social control that threatens the entire region.

That is why international solidarity is more necessary than ever. Together, we can demonstrate that democracy is a universal value and that the struggle for the respect for human rights has no borders.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you, Ms. Marin.

Now I invite Ms. Puyosa to take the floor for five minutes.

[Iria Puyosa, Senior Research Fellow, Democracy Tech Initiative, Atlantic Council, As an Individual]

Honourable members of the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development in Canada's House of Commons, I am honoured to appear here today to give testimony on the Maduro regime's systematic use of digital repression tools for political persecution in Venezuela. These tools are part of a calculated strategy to silence dissent, instill fear and maintain an iron grip on power.

My testimony will highlight key tactics employed by the regime, drawing on my research on this matter over the last decade.

The scale of surveillance in Venezuela is deeply concerning. The Venezuelan government has built a sophisticated apparatus for monitoring and controlling its citizens' digital lives. At the heart of that system lies the homeland system, or sistema patria. This system allows the regime to collect massive amounts of personal data, with or without consent, in order to track citizens' consumption habits, political affiliations and even family relations. The Maduro regime has shown blatant disregard for the privacy of citizens' communications. Evidence suggests widespread interception of phone calls, text messages and Internet traffic.

A report by Telefónica, for example, indicates that, in 2001 alone, over 20% of its user base had their communications intercepted at the behest of the security agencies of Venezuela's regime. As you know, Telefónica is a Spanish company. We suspect the number of wiretapped lines is likely higher in Venezuelan companies, particularly in the case of the state-owned company Cantv, which provides service to more than half of the Venezuelan population.

While this has not been definitively proven, we suspect that sophisticated spyware is highly likely to be in place, given the detailed information about private conversations that pro-government figures have revealed on numerous occasions on broadcast television and at public events. A vast network of video cameras are deployed across the major cities of the country, adding to the invasive surveillance network and its regime services.

While the full capacities of that system remain unknown, we know facial recognition technology is certainly being used to identify and track individuals of interest to the regime. The lack of transparency surrounding this technology raises serious concerns about its potential for abuse and its chilling effect on freedom of assembly.

Social media platforms, while vital for accessing information and organizing in the face of a restrictive media landscape, have become a space of digital repression. Activists, human rights defenders and journalists are subject to harassment in those spaces. Doxing and online harassment campaigns targeting journalists and activists who dare to criticize the regime often lead to off-line consequences, including arbitrary detentions and short-term disappearances. Authorities use tools like the state-owned messaging app VenApp, as well as social media monitoring, to identify and track dissidents. Information obtained by illegitimate monitoring is often used to intimidate, harass and even detain individuals. Doxing—revealing personal information online—is also used against activists and journalists.

Days after the July 28 election, many citizens reported seeing drones patrolling cities in the context of increased militarization and popular protests. This is even more alarming considering that Venezuela also has armed drones that were seen during combats in 2022 with dissident Colombian guerrillas in the south of Venezuela.

The Maduro regime's systematic use of digital repression tools presents a grave threat to human rights and democracy in Venezuela and the western hemisphere. The international community must stand in solidarity with the Venezuelan people and take concrete actions to condemn the regime's digital repression tactics, sanction entities involved in deploying these digital repression tools, support organizations promoting digital rights and freedom of expression in Venezuela, and assist Venezuelans seeking refuge from persecution.

Let's remember that the fight for democracy and human rights in Venezuela is inextricably linked to the battle for democracy and human rights across the western hemisphere.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Now I will open the floor for questions and answers. I would like to invite Mr. Randeep Sarai.

Welcome, Mr. Sarai, to our committee. The floor is yours for seven minutes, please.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I'm not normally a member of this committee, but I am fascinated by this very challenging situation that Venezuelans are facing.

The member who is normally here, Anita, has asked me to ask Iria Puyosa this question: How is the Venezuelan government using digital repression of protesters, and how can this be prevented from expanding into other parts of the world?

I understand that they're using many tools and techniques to suppress people's voices. Also, in some ways, they actually encourage people to rat them out or report them if they're supporting anybody except for the current governing authoritarian regime. What are those tools, and how can the world learn from that and make sure it doesn't happen in other parts of the world?

The question is for you, Iria Puyosa.

[Iria Puyosa]

Thank you for the question.

As I introduced in my opening statement, the Maduro regime has used a series of digital repression tools, including tools for monitoring the communications of the citizens in social media communications, but also in private communications, through phone communications, messaging app communications and Internet navigation.

Recently, after the July elections, they weaponized the Venezuelan homeland system and developed a messaging app, VenApp, asking people to dox individuals who were demonstrating against the government or individuals who were part of the electoral organization or the democratic forces.

They are also using social media platforms for those purposes, to ask individuals to report who the demonstrators are and who the dissidents are and the people who are against the regime, and to indicate where they are located. That information is used by the regime security forces to arbitrarily detain these individuals, who have been imprisoned without any due process.

This is part of the large digital repression system that I was describing. Surveillance, monitoring, harassment and censoring are integrated in order to consolidate and to help the Maduro regime stay in power.

Of course, the success they've had and are having in the use of digital repression is obviously setting a bad example for other authoritarian regimes around the world. These kinds of regimes have been, in the last few years, sharing knowledge and practices in order to learn from each other how to repress the population and how to stay in power against the will of their citizens.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

How many arrests do you know have been made, and who has been targeted as a result of the reports that this VenApp has instigated? Do you know how many people have been arrested or detained as a result of people reporting them through this app?

[Iria Puyosa]

It would be hard to point out the exact number. We know that in the days following the election, while popular protests were in development and they deployed these tools for repression, they detained around 2,000 people in just three days, but of course it's difficult to say that it's just because of doxing and the VenApp, because they use all of these tools. They use social media. They use VenApp. They use the security forces. They use snitches in the population.

All of those things contribute to the repression of the population, so it would be hard to single out a particular case that was exactly because of that, although in a few cases they actually broadcast the detentions and said that they received information from individuals using WhatsApp channels—they were able to do that—or using VenApp. They recorded and published on social media the moments when they were doing the detentions, proving to the population that, yes, this system is in place: “We receive information and we act on this information.”

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Do you think any particular groups, like reporters, activists or any minority groups, are more vulnerable to this? Are they more vulnerable to snitching through the app or any other digital apparatus?

[Iria Puyosa]

In the past, human rights defenders, journalists and political activists were more likely targets of repression in general. However, after the elections, most of the individuals who were detained had a very different profile. They were youth from low-income neighbourhoods who were just demonstrating. In some cases, they were actually in their houses when they were detained. We suspect some of the cases are people who were targeted because somebody in the neighbourhood wanted to earn points with their bosses at the party.

It's less a specific target and more the general population now, particularly young people. A significant number of the detainees are very young people. There are even teenagers or minors. It's not a specific profile like it was before. Now it's more the general population.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

I know that groups like Apple and Google have banned this app on their devices. I think it's only web-based now. Is there anything else that countries like Canada can do to help prevent these types of apps or these types of digital technologies harming democracy and people's freedoms in Venezuela?

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

I'm sorry, Ms. Puyosa. The time is up.

I'll give you 15 or 20 seconds if you want to answer quickly.

[Iria Puyosa]

Yes. I think the Government of Canada can help curtail digital repression in Venezuela by sanctioning the providers of these tools. In this case, VenApp is Venezuelan-owned and developed, but the regime used tools and technologies developed and provided by other countries.

That is a way in which you can be helpful. Try to target those companies from other countries that are providing technology to the Venezuelan regime.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you.

Mr. Majumdar, you have the floor for seven minutes, please.

[Shuv Majumdar, Conservative, Calgary Heritage, AB]

Thank you.

Thank you for your extremely thoughtful testimony.

The international community pushed the Venezuelan opposition into the election as a democratic solution, as I think you might agree. It seems that now the international community must stand for the election it encouraged Venezuela to undertake.

Perhaps I could start with you, Iria. What steps can Ottawa take to catch up with what Washington is trying to do?

[Iria Puyosa]

Like I said at the end of my opening remarks, useful things for the Government of Canada to do are joining in with the sanctions to entities involved in deploying the digital repression tools and continuing to support organizations working on freedom of expression and digital rights in Venezuela. I think that is something we will continue to appreciate.

Also, as David Smolansky mentioned at the beginning, the continued support for the human rights abuse and crimes against humanity investigations in the context of Venezuela is an issue to which Canada can continue to contribute.

Of course, at the moment, the Venezuelan people are expecting support from Canada and other democratic countries around the world to make sure that the will of the people expressed in the elections is respected and that president-elect Edmundo González can take power in January 2025. We expect the democratic governments around the world—including Canada, of course—to have a role to play in that.

[Shuv Majumdar, Conservative, Calgary Heritage, AB]

Thank you very much.

My second question would be for Maria.

What kind of specific actions has the socialist thuggery of Maduro taken to go after the Venezuelan opposition with different leaders, different tools of suppression and different attempts to divide the opposition, who have been heroically standing together all this time, despite being displaced to the tune of millions across the region? It strikes me that the opposition in Venezuela has a resilience and a strength in the idea of “Libertad, libertad, libertad”.

I'm curious to know exactly what the tools are that Maduro is using with his thugs to go after the opposition in Venezuela.

[Maria Marin]

[Witness spoke in Spanish, interpreted as follows:]

Thank you for the question.

First of all, as we heard from the previous question, according to data from Maduro himself, although this is hard to confirm, in three days, between July 30 and August 3, they received 5,000 accusations through VenApp. Of course, it's very hard to say if this is true, but it allows us to understand the scope of how this technology is being used to crack down on opposition voices.

Internally, we're seeing so many measures being used to monitor and crack down on opponents. These include some very simple methods, such as taking away phones from people on the street, whether they're opposition voices or not. In fact, some teens got into trouble just because there was a Maduro meme somewhere in their feed. We know that people have had their passports cancelled, thousands of people outside Venezuela, which means they cannot go back into the country. For example, if they want to run for office or something like that, they won't be able to go back to the country.

That said, I would say that the principal mechanisms are intimidation, making people's identities public and close monitoring. There seems to be impunity for Maduro. Technology is a means, not an end, but the military, paramilitary and police forces, who are all being investigated for crimes against humanity, are the ones carrying out these methods. We need to take action on these technologies, but we also need to ensure that those responsible for human rights violations feel that they will eventually pay for what they've done—not like today, when there's impunity.