( Spanish) – Relatives of detained Venezuelans gathered outside the Brazilian embassy in Caracas on Wednesday to ask Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to intercede with the government of Nicolás Maduro for the release of those arrested in the context of post-election protests.
Among the complaints of the relatives are restrictions on contacting the detainees, a lack of transparency in knowing their conditions and whereabouts, and the fact that they are not allowed to hire private defense.
has requested comment from the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office and the Brazilian Foreign Ministry on these allegations.
“I want to reiterate that both the families and the prisoners are hooded to force us to enter a visiting area where we do not even have physical contact with them,” Andreina Baduel, sister of the detainee Adolfo Baduel, told .
The Baduel brothers are the sons of former Defense Minister Raúl Isaías Baduel, a former ally of Chavismo, architect of the military movement that restored Hugo Chávez to power after the brief coup d’état of April 2022, and who died in prison after being accused of corruption.
The protests have been denounced as acts of vandalism and attacks that were part of an attempted coup by the Maduro government, which has also claimed, without evidence, that they were promoted by the opposition with the support of governments and figures abroad.
Manuel Cobela contributed to this report.
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