Students and their representatives claim that their due process, right to education, right to defense and presumption of innocence were violated in the collective expulsion process at UNES. They are considering taking collective action
Luisa Quintero | Luna Perdomo
A group of 71 students from the National Experimental University of Security (UNES), Caracas nucleus, was expelled by the authorities for his involvement in the protests within the institution andOn July 28thpresidential election day.
Students of the TSU in Criminalistics and Criminal Investigation were called this Wednesday 11 to a “disciplinary council”, where they were forced to sign the “withdrawal” from the institution for supposedly violating the rules of coexistence related to “morality and good customs inside or outside the university.”
Jon’s son* is one of those expelled. As a lawyer, he filed a complaint in a civil court of appeal, but the judge told him that he had to exhaust the administrative process and the appeals for review and reconsideration in his case.
“If you are going to individualize the conduct of each of the students in these events, then tell me what illegal conduct each of them carried out. My son and the other five involved appear in a photo queuing at the voting center. They told me that this is an order from above. The order is to discharge him at 71 years old to scare him.“There is no other word for it, to scare the rest of the students,” says Jon.
After August 8, when he was called for an interview, on the 21st he was notified that he had an administrative process open. Jon explains that “they did everything backwards. When they notify that there is a procedure, they (UNES) are guided by the internal regulations that give 48 hours to present any appeal, when the Organic Law of Administrative Procedures establishes in article 48 that it is 10 days.”
He says that he tried to talk to Colonel Jaime Alcántara, a member of the UNES board, who told him “that he did not want to receive anything from me. I took all this to court, but they told me to exhaust all administrative procedures, but how are we going to exhaust these resources if they do not receive us?”
Among those expelled are young people who had already completed their academic workload and paid the $90 fee for their degree. This is the case of Juan*, 21 years old, who was hoping to join the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigations Corps (CICPC) in October.
Juan claims that his fundamental rights were violated by not allowing him to defend himself against the accusations made by the board. He explains that he was first summoned to an interview, where he was directly accused of being one of the students who recorded the protest on July 28 following the assaults on a classmate. Days later, he was informed that he had an administrative process open at the institution and had to appear.
Students were called in by time slot. Juan was one of the first to enter, but at 6:00 pm the group that entered five hours earlier had not left the institution.
“General José Rigoberto Betancourt Moya, secretary general of UNES, is the culprit and responsible for everything that is happening, because he was voting assisted and attacked a colleague. That’s when the uproar started,” says Martha*, mother of one of those expelled.
His son was scheduled to finish his academic workload in December, but was called to testify. He was one of those arrested on election day and taken to the PNB headquarters in Maripérez. After two days, he was transferred to a Cicpc headquarters in Santa Paula. He remained there until Friday, August 2.
He was released from prison and remains under investigation, along with five other companions, for alleged “incitement to hatred.” Neither his cell phone nor any of his other belongings have been returned to them.
“These casualties have been planned for days. They say they are complying with the protocol, but they themselves are violating it because they will receive double punishment. They were already in prison for a crime for a week,” says Maria.
UNES students are being denied the right to private defense, just as thousands of people have been detained following post-election protests. One student claims that her “right to education, due process and defense” is being violated.
He told SuchWhich On September 11, she was summoned to the disciplinary council and said that “they didn’t even let them speak, they refused to give us the title and they immediately discharged us.” This aspiring officer of the Bolivarian National Police said that they were advised to “continue appealing,” but she remembers that they had already completed their studies.
This student believes that the elections, in this case the presidential elections on July 28, are part of a civic act that is not linked to the university and maintains that in the disciplinary council they are told about laws “that we as UNES students do not even know about.”
The mother of another student from the National Experimental University of Security believes that the person most responsible for the expulsion of these 71 students from the university is Betancourt Moya, as she claims that the rector Fabio Zavarse arrived at the institution on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 11, and said he was unaware of the situation.
The students themselves hold Betancourt Moya responsible for the fact that these students were given the discharge certificates without being allowed access to the defense. The relatives are evaluating the measures to be taken, including filing complaints with the Ombudsman’s Office. “This is a great injustice that is being committed against these 71 students.”
*The names of these people have been changed to protect their identity.
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