Rocío San Miguel
, activist, human rights defender and expert on military issues in Venezuela,
was detained when she was preparing to travel outside the country
, human rights NGOs and opposition politicians reported this Sunday, without the authorities having officially commented. about the case.
San Miguel's arrest would have occurred on Friday at the Maiquetía airport in Caracas,
when accompanied by her daughter
"she was preparing to leave the country for the carnival holiday," Gonzalo Himob, vice president of director of the non-governmental organization Foro Penal.
“It is not known until now where he is
,” said Himob, who announced that they are collecting information on the case.
The organization Civilis Human Rights condemned the incident and described the detention of the activist and lawyer as “arbitrary,” while demanding “to know her whereabouts,” after two days have passed “without hearing from her,” it claimed in a message from his X account, formerly Twitter.
"Consistent with our mandate, we demand his immediate freedom and denounce that this new abuse is part of the painful practice of persecution against those who defend and exercise rights," published the specialized NGO Provea.
San Miguel's arrest would have occurred on Friday at the Maiquetía airport, in Caracas.
AP Photo
Amnesty International, for its part,
called for his "immediate and unconditional freedom."
The Venezuelan prosecutor's office has not yet commented on the case.
The detention occurs in a context of the Venezuelan government's announcement that
it has neutralized five assassination "conspiracies"
, in which the Venezuelan justice system points to the military, journalists and activists.
One of them, called "White Bracelet", in which San Miguel is supposedly involved,
consisted of the attack on a military base in Táchira, on the border with Colombia
, to take weapons and assassinate Chavismo leaders.
Maduro, who must seek re-election this year,
frequently denounces plans to overthrow and assassinate him.
For these latest alleged conspiracies, 36 have been detained - 12 for "White Bracelet" - and 22 people have arrest warrants, according to Attorney General Tarek William Saab on January 26.
"We alert the world that the repressive onslaught of the Maduro regime continues
," condemned María Corina Machado, the main opposition figure facing the 2024 presidential elections, despite a political disqualification against her for 15 years.
The opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, also denounced that "once again, power
continues the dynamics of terror, persecution, criminalization
and arbitrariness to neutralize those who think differently."
San Miguel won a case against Venezuela in 2018 before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court)
for the violation of political and expression rights
, after his dismissal from a public entity for supporting in 2003 the call for a recall referendum against the then President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013).
According to the NGO Foro Penal,
Venezuela has 261 "political prisoners"
, among them 18 women and 146 soldiers.
Last October, the government and the opposition signed a political agreement ahead of the presidential elections, which led to the release of 10 Americans and another 24 Venezuelans who were imprisoned in Venezuela for political reasons, in exchange for Alex Saab, accused of being Maduro's front man. and who was detained in the United States on accusations of money laundering.
Source: AFP, AP and EFE
P.B.