Maduro wields powerful hate law against remaining foes in Venezuela

Days later, several dozen masked officers raided Urbaneja s home and took him at gunpoint for a chat, according to the police report of his arrest and Urbaneja s wife. Urbaneja remains jailed, awaiting formal charges and a trial.

The mayor, in a text message to Reuters, confirmed writing the letter seeking hate-law charges against Urbaneja. He defended the move, saying his foe s critique was unfair because the local coronavirus response is managed by the national health system, not the mayor s office.

It was an increasingly common maneuver: In a review of more than 40 recent hate-law arrests, Reuters found that in each case, authorities intervened against Venezuelans who had criticized Maduro, other ruling party officials or their allies.

Despite its growing use by prosecutors, the hate law is considered unconstitutional and illegitimate by many Venezuelan legal scholars consulted by Reuters. Not only does the law violate the right to free expression, they argue, it was also illegally enacted drafted and rubber-stamped by a parallel legislature that Maduro created at the time to circumvent the opposition-controlled assembly. 

via www.reuters.com

Hate speech.