Dozens of family members of teenagers detained after July's controversial presidential elections today asked the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to demand, together with the Venezuelan government, that they be released immediately.
"We call on UNICEF, as a defender of children and young people around the world, to use its influence to defend the rights of the 70 affected Venezuelan children and adolescents. They, like all children in the world, deserve to grow up in an environment of freedom, respect and opportunity, instead of being subjected to fear, repression and torture", reads a letter sent today at the headquarters of that organization in Caracas.
In the document, the detainees' families explain that UNICEF's objective "is to promote respect for and guarantee the rights of children and adolescents."
"However, we consider it alarming that they have not spoken out or taken relevant actions in relation to the arbitrary arrests of minors in Venezuela, in addition to the inhumane and degrading treatment they have suffered in the last three months", they emphasize.
The family members also ask UNICEF to access the detention centers and verify, independently and directly, the physical and mental state of the detained teenagers, so that they can "urgently" be guaranteed access to adequate medical and psychological care.
Among those who signed the document are Katherine Martínez and Nérida Ruiz, mothers of two teenagers who were detained as part of protests against the official results of the Venezuelan presidential elections and who are accused of the crimes of inciting hatred and terrorism.
"The answer they gave us [at UNICEF] is that they will speed up our requests. They asked me about the detainees. They asked me how [the detained son] was and if he had been tortured. They said they will do their best to respond to our requests," Nérida Ruiz told journalists after speaking with UNICEF representatives.
Among the cases reported is that of Irene Corrado, 17 years old, who on September 11th was supposed to present herself willingly as a model for a fashion agency, which she was unable to do because she had been detained since August 4th. for being part of a WhatsApp group of teenagers.
Based in Valencia, in the state of Carabobo (center of the country), she wanted to study law, but changed her intention due to her arrest because she considered that "the Venezuelan justice system is not fair".
Venezuela, a country with a large community of Portuguese and Portuguese descendants, held presidential elections on July 28, after which the National Electoral Council (CNE) awarded victory to Nicolás Maduro with just over 51% of the votes. , while the opposition claims that its candidate, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia obtained almost 70% of the votes.
The Venezuelan opposition and several countries in the international community denounced electoral fraud and demanded that the voting records be presented for independent verification, which the CNE says is unfeasible due to a "cyber attack" of which it was allegedly the target.
The election results were contested in the streets, with demonstrations repressed by security forces, with the record of more than two thousand arrests and more than two dozen fatalities.
According to the NGO Fórum Penal (FP), Venezuela has 1,916 citizens imprisoned for political reasons, of which 240 are women and 70 are teenagers aged between 14 and 17.
