At the beginning of September, social networks went viral the arrest of an entire family in Venezuelaincluding a 2 -year -old girl. The police were looking for a collaborator of the opposition leader María Corina Machado, and not finding him arrested their relatives.
Miriam Fernández Ruiz, 72 years old; Chantal Guillén Ibarra, 21; Miguel Ángel Guillén, 17, and a 2 -year -old baby were deprived of liberty. Only Chantal’s father was saved from the arrest because he was not at home when the police tried to stop him.
The Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners, an independent organization, said in the social network X that man was “Collaborator of the Mobilization Team of María Corina Machado and key member in the electoral campaign activities of Edmundo González for the elections of July 28, 2024 ”.
Days later, minors were released, but the rest of their relatives remained in captivity.
A week later, on September 16, a similar case occurred.
Human Rights Ombudsman Pedro Hernández was arrested in Yaracuy state together with his father, Pedro Hernández, his wife, Natalia Álvarez, his brother Daniel Hernández Oropeza and his cousin José Gregorio Hernández. The latter is also your lawyer.
Edmundo González denounces the apprehension of a family photo: screen capture
It was known that the family was arrested when they went to a detention center to look for information from Pedro Hernández, son.
He Sippenhaftthe Nazi operation to punish the “traitor” family
When recounting these cases, human rights defenders remember that this practice has a name: Sippenhaft. An operation frequently implemented by the Nazis to punish the family of the “traitor”, even if nothing had to do with the actions of the individual.
The family detention in Venezuela has been qualified by the UN in its latest reports of a “Perverse and illegal practice that can constitute an international crime”then it is equivalent to a forced disappearance in many cases due to the lack of information about its whereabouts.
In 2021, the fact determination mission described how Venezuela’s Security and Intelligence Forces used relatives to press opponentsapplying the Sippenhaft.
According to the report, Family members are arrested as a form of retaliation or pressure. These tactics, based on interviews conducted by the mission to the victims, have caused serious impacts, such as “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” for those affected and a “climate of fear” in society.
The report details how This persecution extends beyond the political figures, reaching its close environment. In point 73, it is mentioned that security and intelligence agencies use “criminal tactics including kidnapping or detention of family members” to achieve arrests.
The cases of Sippenhaft registered in Venezuela
The UN report cited the case of a accused of participating in Operation Gideon in 2020, who said that agents of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) tortured him and threatened to apply that measure.
The defendant testified that the authorities fulfilled his threat by detaining his two sisters and his brother -in -law, retaining them at the Baleíta police headquarters for 32 days.
He Sippenhaft It was a tactic driven by Heinrich Himmler in Nazi Germany to punish the relatives of the defendants in the failed attack against Adolf Hitler and was based on the idea of the “corruption of blood” to justify the collective punishment.
“In the case of Venezuela, the Sippenhaft As a threat, that is, when a person is detained, he is told: Look, If you do not confess, that it is basically to say what they want to say, then I am going to stop your brothers, your wife, your children, etc. ”, tells him Time Ali Daniels, Coordinator of the NGO access to justice.
For Daniels, this is a figure that has remained over time and that, indeed, obeys a violation of a basic principle of criminal law. “If someone commits something that is considered contrary to the legal system, only that person is responsible and that action cannot be used against those who have not had anything to do and whose linkage is exclusively of consanguineous or family type,” explains the expert.
Defensor lawyers, under pressure in Venezuela
The UN mission also revealed that this repressive policy affects defense lawyers.
Of 56 lawyers who responded to a questionnaire, 57% declared to have received threats or harassment against them or their families, including surveillance, aggressive persecution, intimidating called and blockade of the entrance to the courts.
This report emphasizes that The arrest and harassment of relatives of opponents are a state policy in Venezuela in order to generate fear and control.
*The group of newspapers America (GDA), to which the National belongs, is a network of leading media founded in 1991, which promotes democratic values, independent press and freedom of expression in Latin America through quality journalism for our audiences.
