Families of detainees after the elections ask Maduro for a “measure of grace” for their release
About twenty people this Thursday requested the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, for a “measure of grace” to grant “full and immediate” freedom to their relatives, detained after the presidential elections of July 28, when protests against the official result.
Outside the Palace of Justice, in Caracas, Dionexys GarcÃa read a letter in which he warns Maduro that the measure is “especially urgent” for those who are in “inhuman prison conditions” and also for those who suffer from “serious problems.” of health.
«We hope that this measure is taken quickly and that we can live a Christmas without our children behind bars. We implore you to act with compassion and justice, to listen to our pleas and allow these young people to return to their homes,” GarcÃa told reporters.
Relatives of young people and adolescents arbitrarily detained in the context of the post-election demonstrations gathered at the Palace of Justice, in the center of #Caracas. «Our boys are innocent and their physical, moral and… health is being destroyed. pic.twitter.com/23E9MRSBXJ
— Venezuelan Prisons Observatory (@oveprisiones) November 7, 2024
Measure for detainees
He asked Maduro to open a dialogue with the Venezuelan people, especially through the mothers of the detainees, as a space that “towards satisfactory liberation” and “advance to the construction of peace.”
The letter denounces that his relatives were “unjustly” detained during July 29 and 30, and their cases have been characterized by “irregularities”, such as “arrest without a court order”, “baseless tax accusations”, ” adoption of decisions against the law”, among others.
Carola Varilla said that her son, José Manuel Robles, was arrested on August 3 after a complaint – she said – from someone from the community of the UBCh (Hugo Chávez Battle Unit), an organization dedicated to the defense of the Bolivarian revolution.
He asked Maduro to review “each one” of the detainees’ files, while denouncing that in prisons “the food is little” and on “many occasions it arrives bad.”
He warned that “in some prisons”, where water reaches “very little”, “sometimes (detainees) receive three glasses of water.”
At the same demonstration, Nicole Garrido stated that her brother, Anthony Pérez, was arrested on July 31 despite the fact that “he was never in a march.”
Both Garrido and Varilla stated that their relatives are accused of “terrorism and incitement to hatred”, charges that – according to NGOs – are attributed to the majority of those detained after the presidential elections, estimated at more than 2,400, according to the Executive.
The Prosecutor’s Office accuses the detainees of generating “violence” and “vandalism” during the demonstrations, something that the largest opposition coalition dismisses, which accuses the State security forces of “repression”
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