Sec. 2. FINDINGS

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## SEC. 2 FINDINGS Congress makes the following findings: ####

(1)The Central Bank of Venezuela and the National Statistical Institute of Venezuela stated that the annual inflation rate in Venezuela in 2013 was 56.30, the highest level of inflation in the Western Hemisphere and the third highest level of inflation in the world behind South Sudan and Syria. ####

(2)The Central Bank of Venezuela and the Government of Venezuela have imposed a series of currency controls that has exacerbated economic problems and, according to the World Economic Forum, has become the most problematic factor for doing business in Venezuela. ####

(3)The Central Bank of Venezuela declared that the scarcity index of Venezuela reached 29.4 percent in March 2014, which signifies that fewer than one in 4 basic goods is unavailable at any given time. The Central Bank has not released any information on the scarcity index since that time. ####

(4)Since 1999, violent crime in Venezuela has risen sharply and the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, an independent nongovernmental organization, found the national per capita murder rate to be 79 per 100,000 people in 2013. ####

(5)The international nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch recently stated, “Under the leadership of President Chavez and now President Maduro, the accumulation of power in the executive branch and the erosion of human rights guarantees have enabled the government to intimidate, censor, and prosecute its critics.”. ####

(6)The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013 of the Department of State maintained that in Venezuela “the government did not respect judicial independence or permit judges to act according to the law without fear of retaliation” and “the government used the judiciary to intimidate and selectively prosecute political, union, business, and civil society leaders who were critical of government policies or actions”. ####

(7)The Government of Venezuela has detained foreign journalists and threatened and expelled international media outlets operating in Venezuela, and the international nongovernmental organization Freedom House declared that Venezuela’s “media climate is permeated by intimidation, sometimes including physical attacks, and strong antimedia rhetoric by the government is common”. ####

(8)Since February 4, 2014, the Government of Venezuela has responded to antigovernment protests with violence and killings perpetrated by its public security forces. ####

(9)In May 2014, Human Rights Watch found that the unlawful use of force perpetrated against antigovernment protesters was “part of a systematic practice by the Venezuelan security forces”. ####

(10)As of September 1, 2014, 41 people had been killed, approximately 3,000 had been arrested unjustly, and more than 150 remained in prison and faced criminal charges as a result of antigovernment demonstrations throughout Venezuela. ####

(11)Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was arrested on February 18, 2014, in relation to the protests and was unjustly charged with criminal incitement, conspiracy, arson, and property damage. Since his arrest, Lopez has been held in solitary confinement and has been denied 58 out of 60 of his proposed witnesses at his ongoing trial. ####

(12)As of September 1, 2014, not a single member of the public security forces of the Government of Venezuela had been held accountable for acts of violence perpetrated against antigovernment protesters.