BOGOTA, Colombia -- Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, beleaguered by a second month of protests against him, has prosecuted political rivals under terrorism laws and expanded his powers by emergency decrees. His backers on the Supreme Court have also tried to dissolve the national legislature, which is led by the political opposition.
Now, the president is turning to military courts to further tighten his grip, prosecuting demonstrators and other civilians in tribunals that the government closely controls.
Last week, for example, protesters accused of participating in the toppling of a statue of former President Hugo Chavez were hauled off to a military base, where they faced the judges of a military tribunal.
At least 120 people have been jailed by military courts since early April, when demonstrators began taking to the streets to call for new elections, according to Penal Forum, a legal group assisting those arrested. Another group monitoring cases, Provea, counted at least 90 people jailed by the military. Both groups contend that the country has never used the military courts against so many civilians this way outside of wartime.
"Military justice sows the greatest terror in our population," said Juan Miguel Matheus, an opposition congressman in the state of Carabobo. He said at least 69 people there had been jailed by the military since early April.
Those held include students, store owners, mechanics and farmers, rights groups say. An entire family was arraigned before a military tribunal in Caracas last week and charged with inciting rebellion. In one case in the city of Valencia, two people were taken before military courts on suspicion of stealing legs of ham during a round of looting -- then were charged with rebellion as well, according to Penal Forum.
"They are being treated like they are combatants," said Alfredo Romero, director of the legal group. "It's taking civil jurisdiction and putting it in the hands of the military, like we are in a war."
Many see another reason for the military crackdown against the protesters: The president's power is declining within his own leftist party, especially among its law enforcers.
In April, Maduro announced what he called "the Zamora Plan," a set of decrees meant to curb "internal and external attacks" using the armed forces. Many lawyers and opposition officials see it as the legal premise for the shift to military courts.
Maduro said he had expanded the role of the armed forces in a "strategic civil-military plan to guarantee the country functions." He warned that the opposition had "called for a coup d'état," an accusation he had made before, and that the punishments would be tripled for such offenses.
The president has since described the protests as acts of terrorism that would be treated legally as such. A call to the Venezuelan Information Ministry for comment was not returned.
Earlier this month, Nestor Reverol, the interior minister, said on Twitter that the tribunals would be used. "Military courts will be in charge of all investigations that are necessary of these terrorists hired by the right," he wrote, capitalizing the word 'terrorists.'
Then last week, Vladimir Padrino, Maduro's defense minister, told a Spanish news service that he planned to take any protester who attacked National Guardsmen to the tribunals.
"Military justice will immediately be used to hear this kind of case," he said.
Yet human-rights lawyers say some cases have nothing to do with attacks against soldiers. Romero cited the case in Valencia, about a two-hour drive west of Caracas, where widespread rioting has led to a near state of martial law. He said his team had recently attended the arraignment of two residents who were arrested after cuts of ham were found in their homes, presumably evidence that they had been involved in the rioting.
However, when the court announced the charges, the pair stood accused of insulting soldiers and inciting rebellion among those in the town.
"A narrative was completely invented," Romero said.
Information for this article was contributed by Ana Vanessa Herrero of The New York Times.
A Section on 05/14/2017