Several teenagers arrested and accused of terrorism by the government of Nicolás Maduro during the post-electoral crisis in Venezuela denounced shouting from their cells that they were suffering beatings, in a detention center in La Guaira, near Caracas, according to an audio released by their relatives.
A recording to which various media outlets had access, including the Voice of Americaallows you to listen to the exchange of messages between several of the 8 young people imprisoned in the Preventive Detention Center for Adolescents and Women at the Caraballeda checkpoint and their relatives.
In the audio, captured on Thursday, some can be heard shouting that they were being beaten.
One of them yells at his mother that they hit him in the face. “Now, now!”, he is heard saying, while asking his family member for his blessing and reminding her that he loves her. “Try to stay calm,” his mother responds, crying.
Several of the women who came to visit them without success demanded that those who allegedly beat them stop. “Leave it!” is heard in the recording. One of the mothers commented in another audio released that the situation was “torture,” denouncing that checkpoint officials “throw away their meals” and “give them pussy whenever they want.”
The Venezuelan Prisons Observatory, an NGO that has been protecting the rights of detainees in the South American country for 22 years, confirmed the authenticity of the audio with one of the young people’s mothers.
Foro Penal, an NGO that provides free legal assistance to hundreds of political prisoners in Venezuela, plans to visit the detention center to verify the complaints, but could not confirm the veracity of the audio.
According to its records, the Venezuelan government arbitrarily detained more than 1,400 people after the July 28 presidential election and protests against the controversial results. There are more than 1,700 political prisoners in Venezuela, he indicated.
Spokespersons for the executive branch and the Public Ministry of Venezuela affirm that these detainees committed acts of terrorism and incitement to hatred after the proclamation of Maduro as the winner of the election, which the opposition considers fraudulent.
Depression and suicide attempts
The complaints from the Caraballeda checkpoint coincided with a protest in Caracas by relatives of 28 arrested people, who were transferred to the maximum security prison of Tocuyito, in the state of Carabobo, 180 kilometers from the Capital District.
According to their testimonies, many of the young people detained during the post-electoral crisis in Venezuela suffer from depression, terrible incarceration conditions, and several have even attempted suicide.
At least 6 detainees “have tried to take their lives inside that penitentiary center,” said Wendy Lienda this Thursday, citing what was narrated by her son, Víctor Uzcátegui, 22 years old. According to what he learned, the young man has helped other detainees fight with depression.
Uzcátegui, a delivery services employee at a company in La Guaira, was arrested after filling the tank of the motorcycle he works with. Human rights defenders and opposition politicians affirm that numerous arbitrary arrests have occurred due to denunciations by Chavismo activists.
Some of those detained in Tocuyito present a pattern of malnutrition due to “the bad food” they are fed, Lienda noted, for his part, during a protest at the headquarters of the Supreme Court of Justice, in Caracas. “It’s inhumane,” he said.
Teenagers on trial
This week, it was learned that 11 teenagers from Carabobo detained by the government went to trial and participated in their first telematic hearings before Judge Keidimar Ramos Castillo, of the second court with jurisdiction in terrorism.
The local newspaper The Impulse reported that the prosecution is asking for 10 years in prison for them for alleged crimes of terrorism, incitement to hatred, obstruction of public roads and resistance to authority. The judge would have offered them only 6 years in prison if they pleaded guilty.
According to Venezuelan law, those arrested must appear in court within a period of no more than 10 days. In these cases, 63 days passed, he highlighted The Impulse.
One of the boys, 17, reported to his mother that he had been beaten “horribly” and that he was forced to falsely confess that he had received $30 in pay for protesting the election results, under threat of having his head broken, he published. the diary.
Another of those detained in Valencia, Carabobo, 16, had “a suicidal episode,” his mother confirmed to the newspaper. Cocuyo Effect. He was able to visit him for 5 minutes. “They have mistreated him a lot, too much,” he added.
The teenagers shared a cell with common prisoners, some infected with tuberculosis, according to their relatives.
María Corina Machado, leader of the opposition, considered that the trials against teenagers are “a sample of evil” by the authorities and that they seek to frighten the population to avoid protesting Maduro’s electoral proclamation.
Last week, Foro Penal reported on the transfer of 103 political prisoners from Anzoátegui, in the east of the country, to the Yare III common prison, in the central state of Miranda.
The Independent Fact Finding Mission, which investigates serious human rights violations in Venezuela by mandate of the United Nations Human Rights Council, denounced “unprecedented” repression and listed cases that constitute crimes against humanity by the Venezuelan State, to your understanding.
The Maduro government described its report as “an eyesore.”
The sociologist and former political prisoner Nicmer Evans denounced this Friday that jailers beat detainees in the El Rodeo II prison, in Miranda, during a search. One of them would have received injuries to the ribs with a wooden stick, according to his version.
(With information from Álvaro Algarra and Nicole Kolster from Caracas)
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