Caracas. More than 700 people detained during Venezuela’s post-election crisis have been transferred to two maximum-security prisons over the past week amid “irregularities,” the Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP) said Saturday.
“The Nicolás Maduro regime carried out the transfer of more than 700 political prisoners, arbitrarily detained after the presidential elections of July 28, who were in police cells throughout the national territory and were taken to the prisons of Tocuyito (Carabobo, center) and Tocorón (Aragua, center),” said the OVP in a press release.
The transfers took place on August 25, 27 and 30 and “were carried out with many irregularities, including some under false pretenses, as their families were not notified. Many of them found out when they went to take the food to the police stations,” the NGO added.
More than 2,400 people, including 100 teenagers, have been arrested following protests against Maduro’s re-election on July 28, when he was declared the winner amid allegations of fraud by the opposition, which claims victory for its candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.
At the beginning of August, the president said he would prepare the Tocorón and Tocuyito prisons – which had been under the control of criminal gangs for years – to hold those arrested in the protests.
“All the guarimberos (protesters) are going to Tocorón and Tocuyito, maximum security prisons,” Maduro said at the time.
According to the OVP, the authorities have not provided any information about the detainees. “To date, none of the people transferred in the aforementioned days have been allowed to contact their families or to appoint their trusted lawyers.”
Of the 2,400 detainees, some 1,581 have been registered as “political prisoners” by the NGO Foro Penal, which leads the defense of political prisoners in the country. The organization, however, continues to receive complaints and record cases.
The protests have also left 27 dead and 192 injured.
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– 2024-09-03 00:13:52
