Venezuela reached a peak with more than 2,000 arrests of protesters after the presidential elections. Four months later, the Government begins to release some of those prisoners from prison. In a statement from the Vice Presidency of Citizen Security and Peace, headed by the Minister of the Interior and number two of Chavismo, Diosdado Cabello, it was reported that since Tuesday there have been 103 releases, although the human rights organizations that defend the Political prisoners have only been able to confirm 25 as of Thursday. According to the authorities, these measures are added to another 225 granted in November, but which have not been fully implemented either.
Of those released this week, at least 19 are teenagers, from a group of more than 150 who were arrested during the protests of July 29 and 30 throughout the country in rejection of the results announced by the National Electoral Council that proclaimed Maduro as winner of the elections, without presenting disaggregated data and amid complaints of fraud by the opposition. The cases of the minors, between 14 and 17 years old, have generated international condemnations and have kept their mothers in continuous protests and vigils to demand their freedom. The majority of these prisoners have been accused of terrorism crimes. Many of them were detained during protests in street raids in which they found political content against the Government on their phones or were denounced by their neighbors for being opponents, a practice promoted by the State.
Maduro is trying to lower the pressure in the midst of the legitimacy crisis that the election episode has opened. The inauguration will occur in less than a month and represents a new milestone from which the international community could enter a new cycle of ignorance of his presidency, as occurred in 2019, after the questioned 2018 elections in which he did not the opposition was allowed to participate. Chavismo responded with severe repression, at levels never seen before, which even led its opposition rival Edmundo González Urrutia to agree to go into exile, from where he defends his victory in the elections with the voting records and assures that he will return on December 10. January the country to put on the presidential sash. Maduro has accused him of “promoting a civil war.”
The maneuvers carried out to maintain power at all costs have also updated the files of human rights violations that weigh on the Venezuelan Government with an open investigation in the International Criminal Court. The Fact Finding Mission has denounced the reactivation of the repressive apparatus after the elections with arbitrary arrests, short-term forced disappearances, mistreatment and sexual violence.
Chavismo tries to give signals that it is promoting democratic guarantees. This Friday the High Commissioner for Human Rights will provide an update on the situation in Venezuela. Officials of this organization returned to the country at the end of November, after being expelled by Maduro last February when they reported the disappearance and detention of the activist Rocío San Miguel, with Spanish and Venezuelan nationality, of whom this week they released the first images that They allow us to confirm her status after being arrested when she was going to take an international flight and tried for treason and conspiracy. Along with these gestures, arrests of political leaders continue to occur, such as the case of former councilor Jesús Armas, who was taken away by hooded men and whose whereabouts are still unknown.
Missing Spanish-Venezuelan
Human Rights Watch has demanded from the Government of Venezuela information about Sofía María Sahagún Ortíz, a Venezuelan-Spanish citizen, who has been missing since October 23 when she was about to board a flight at the Maiquetía airport. “The Venezuelan government must urgently clarify whether Sofía María Sahagún Ortíz, a Venezuelan-Spanish citizen, has been arrested, reveal her whereabouts, the reasons for her detention and guarantee respect for her rights,” a statement said.
The organization adds that, according to information provided by her relatives, Sahagún Ortíz sent a text message to her husband telling him that she had passed passport control and then they found out the next day that she had not been allowed to board the plane. but they were not told what happened next. Her family has repeatedly asked Venezuelan authorities to search for her and reveal whether she has been detained. “Sahagún Ortíz appears to be the victim of a forced disappearance, a serious crime under international law and, unfortunately, common these days in Venezuela,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.
