During the “Memory in Voices” meeting, various victims of human rights violations recounted their experiences, including graduates of the Transforma Program. He emphasized the construction of historical memory and the generation of narratives guided by the principles of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition.
During the second edition of the “Memory in Voices” meeting, held at the Luisa Rodríguez de Mendoza Auditorium of the Metropolitan University (Unimet), the graduation ceremony for 25 participants of the Transforma Program was held.
This is the third cohort of graduates from this program, promoted by the NGO Defends Venezuelawhich consists of converting direct and indirect victims of human rights violations to turn them into defender activists, spokespersons for their own causes that seek to create historical memory and effective public advocacy before national and international organizations.
The graduation speech was given by José Gregorio Pernalete, Juan Pablo’s father, and the diplomas were delivered by Carlos Briceño, general director of the NGO Defiende Venezuela; Yeimber Machado, litigation coordinator for the Transforma Program; and Fabiola Dávila, logistics coordinator of Defiende Venezuela.
So far, three cohorts have been carried out with a total of seventy (70) participants from seven (7) national entities: Caracas, Miranda, Aragua, Carabobo, Lara, Táchira and Bolívar; and five (5) international: Peru, Spain, Chile, Germany and the United States. In the accumulated, these represent 47 family nuclei victims of human rights violations.
The graduation ceremony was held within the framework of the “Memoria en Voces” activities, an event that brings together victims of humanitarian rights violations and activists in the field.
In this edition, emphasis was placed on the construction of historical memory and the generation of narratives guided by the principles of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition.
As part of the event, a group of project participants presented their cases: Iván Urbina, a member of ALFAVIC Venezuela, narrated the story of his son Fabián Urbina, murdered on June 19, 2017 by an official of the Bolivarian National Guard; Ivonne Parra, founder of the Madres Poderosas committee and mother of Guillermo José Rueda, who was extrajudicially executed on December 12, 2017 by officials of the Special Actions Forces (FAES).
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Another of the cases presented was that of Bárbara Bracho, a member of the SOS Libertad Family and mother of Alberto José Bracho, who was arrested in August 2018 by the DGCIM and accused, without evidence, in the case of the assassination of President Nicolás Maduro. . The closing of this cycle was in charge of Sugled Gasparini, also a member of the SOS Libertad Family, who narrated how her brother has been tortured and accused of “conspiracy”.
These testimonies show that the majority of graduates are women, which has shown that the search for justice is carried out by mothers and wives, and that most of the direct victims are men: sons or husbands. People from very vulnerable contexts from various regions of the country also graduated.
During the meeting, a tribute was paid to Juan Pablo Pernalete, a young UNIMET student who died in the framework of the social demonstrations of 2017. In this sense, Marisa Guinand, rector of this house of studies, reported that the Rectoral Committee had decided to create the «Recognition of sporting excellence Juan Pablo Pernalete».
Also present at the site were Professor Victoria Capriles, researcher and executive director of the UNIMET Center for Human Rights; Aaron Ronquete, UNIMET academic adviser; and José Gregorio Pernalete and Elvira Llovera de Pernalete, parents of Juan Pablo, who shared a few words about the life of his son, according to a review Defend Venezuela press release.
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