The NGO Foro Penal (FP) reported today that political arrests related to the presidential elections are increasing in Venezuela, a country where 301 people are detained for political reasons, 124 of them as part of the opposition's electoral campaign.
"There has been a significant increase in the number of political prisoners. Today there are 301 political prisoners in Venezuela," said the FP director.
Alfredo Romero was speaking at a press conference in Caracas to assess the number and situation of political prisoners in Venezuela.
Alfredo Romero stated that of those arrested throughout 2024, "102 people are related to the opposition movement and campaign led by María Corina Machado and the candidate of Mundo González".
Also that since July 4, 77 people have been detained for political reasons, of which "only 69 have been released".
"Unfortunately, systematic political repression continues. The Penal Forum is concerned about this increase in repression (...) and we ask or demand that this does not happen", he stressed.
Speaking about the cases and families of political prisoners, he explained that several of them are in the El Rodeo I prison, which was recently remodeled and is known as the "hood prison, because they give us someone capable of entering", highlighting that he himself has already went through this "experience".
"There are other experiences in Helicoide, in the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, in Zona7, in Ramo Verde and in other prisons in the country (...) these are people deprived of their liberty for political purposes, arbitrarily", he stressed.
The FP director stressed that 301 is an important number of prisoners: "look at the seriousness of this and the arbitrariness, which is impossible to justify, not even with mistakes or formalisms that are sometimes used, indicating for example that the detainees had committed some crime."
"93 of those arrested have cases that have not been concluded and are under precautionary measures. They have not been convicted, are not yet guilty and have been imprisoned for more than 3 years despite our Organic Criminal Procedure Code establishing a maximum period of preventive detention of three years , without conviction", he explained.
Among the political prisoners detained for the longest time, without conviction, he mentioned the case of José Gámez Bustamente, who despite having "serious health problems" has been "deprived of freedom for more than nine years, without trial" and the cases of six paratroopers , who have been detained for more than seven years "in an unjustifiable situation, without a conviction and with an arbitrary judicial process".
"Anyone who has been without trial for more than three years must be released immediately, according to the law, but the courts simply deny the requests for freedom that we make for these people," he said.
Alfredo Romero drew attention to the fact that among political prisoners there are people who are not political activists, but Human Rights activists, such as Javier Tarazona and Rocío San Miguel and even people who drove the buses and trucks used during the presidential election campaign. .
Also military personnel with "totally unfair processes" who, despite not being linked to the opposition, expressed opinions against the Venezuelan Government.
The FP director specified that the number of military personnel detained in the country, for political reasons, amounts to 152 and that of the total number of prisoners, 149 are civilians, including 27 women.
