The Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), a military force tasked with maintaining public order, was a central actor in the persecution of President Nicolas Maduro's opponents, a crime against humanity, the UN's independent international fact-finding mission on Venezuela determined in its latest report.

"GNB officials perpetrated arbitrary deprivation of life, arbitrary detentions, sexual and gender-based violence, as well as torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment during law enforcement operations in the context of protests and in actions of targeted political persecution since 2014," the mission said.

"The persistence of these abuses reflects structural failures within Venezuela's accountability and political system which have further entrenched impunity."

The report comes with 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado set to address the world in a press conference from Oslo on Thursday, according to the Norwegian government, a day after the Venezuelan opposition leader was awarded the honour in absentia.

Machado, who won the Nobel for challenging Maduro's grip on power, has been in hiding since August 2024 after threats to her life.

The Venezuelan security forces, including the GNB and the police, are regularly accused of abuses, especially during the repression of opposition demonstrations.

The United States, Europe, and many Latin American countries, in particular, do not recognise the results of the 2024 election that secured Maduro a third six-year term.

The opposition has accused Maduro of stealing the election.

Marta Valinas, chair of the fact-finding mission, said it had been able to document the GNB's role in "systematic and coordinated repression against opponents or those perceived as such, which has continued for more than a decade".

- 'Break victims' -

The report said a highly centralised chain of command, under Maduro's direction, had facilitated such abuses.

During protest peaks in 2014, 2017, 2019, and 2024, the GNB used excessive force, including the improper use of lethal weapons, the mission said.

The report also documented mass and targeted arbitrary detentions, physical violence during arrests, planting of evidence, torture and other ill-treatment, and sexual violence inside GNB facilities used as temporary detention centres.

"They form part of a pattern of abuse used to punish and break victims," said Valinas.

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan judicial system seems unable or unwilling to investigate such violations, the report found.

"The mission has reasonable grounds to believe that GNB officials made essential contributions to the crimes under investigation, including arbitrary detentions, torture and ill-treatment, gender-based violence, and persecution," Valinas said.

The UN Human Rights Council set up the fact-finding mission in 2019, and tasked it with assessing alleged human rights violations committed since 2014.

Since 2013, more than seven million Venezuelans have fled the country to escape the economic and political crisis.