The Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners has verified the “systematic use of prolonged isolation as a method of punishment, coercion and torture.” This practice, he points out, “contravenes international standards on the matter” by denying all human contact, access to technical defense and regular communications of the detainee with his loved ones.
For months now the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners has denounced forced disappearances and isolation in prisons as part of a pattern applied by the Nicolás Maduro administration against detained opponents. In a document delivered to the Public Ministry they indicate that 140 people are missing and at least 16 isolated in their detention centers.
“The deliberate denial of information about the whereabouts and status of the detainees in all detention centers places family members in a state of anguish and constitutes forced disappearance, categorically violating article 45 of the Constitution,” the Committee claimed in a document, delivered to the Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday, November 18.
They point out that 140 people are currently missing. The number is slightly less than 160 that registers the NGO Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón until November 5, although it contrasts with the 56 counted by the Penal Forum until last Monday the 10th.
Furthermore, they highlight that arbitrary transfers are combined with disappearances, such as the case of lieutenant colonels Víctor Soto Méndez, Juan Carlos Peña Palmentieri, Deibis Mota Marrero, Cruz Pérez Lugo and Pedro Garrido Guillén; in addition to Lieutenant Suárez Requena; the sergeants Yohnser Noguera and Roger Avelino Zambrano; and captains Nicolás Rodríguez, Ronald Marrero, William Paredes and Carlos Aguilar.
*Read also: Relatives ask for a review of cases of political prisoners in the midst of releases
This group, according to relatives, has already served its sentences. At the beginning of November, these soldiers were taken from the National Center for Military Prosecutions (Cenapromil) Los Teques, better known as the Ramo Verde prison, and taken to an unknown whereabouts.
«They told them to collect their belongings because they were going to be taken to court since they were going to be granted their freedom for having completed their full sentence. Biggest surprise that to this day they are missing,” said Sandra Hernández on behalf of the family members.
They have gone to various detention centers, according to Hernández, including the General Directorate of the Military Penitentiary Service (Dispemil) and other agencies located in Fuerte Tiuna to try to obtain information, but they have not obtained answers.
“There (in Fuerte Tiuna) they have told them not to worry that they are alive, but there is no certain faith of life,” said the woman.
Among the group of forcibly disappeared people, the Committee also counts 20 people belonging to the Gideón case who were detained in Sebin El Helicoide, in Caracas.
On the other hand, the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners has verified the “systematic use of prolonged isolation as a method of punishment, coercion and torture.” This practice, he points out, “contravenes international standards on the matter” by denying all human contact, access to technical defense and regular communications of the detainee with his loved ones.
In this situation they are:
- Alfredo Diaz
- Biagio Pilieri
- Carlos Enrique Conde Márquez
- Catalina Ramos
- Jesus Weapons Monasteries
- Juan Bautista Guevara
- Juan Pablo Guanipa
- Luis Somaza
- Luis Palocz
- Otoniel Guevara
- Perkins Rocha
- Rolando Guevara
- Henryberth Rivas
- Juan Carlos Monasterios
- Antonio Sequea Torres
- Rafael Castro Sandoval
“The total isolation regime without visits is applied to them, a situation that requires the immediate intervention of the Attorney General’s Office to restore their rights,” the Committee asserts.
In the case of Perkins Rocha, Enrique Márquez, Luis Somaza and Perkins Rocha were able receive a visit at the beginning of October. Since then, their wives, sisters or mothers have again been denied access to the detainees.
However, the Committee does not include José Riera, a Voluntad Popular activist arrested on July 26. Her sisters comment to SuchWhich that on one occasion the clothes with which he was arrested were returned to them at the headquarters of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations of the Bolivarian National Police (DIEP-PNB) located in La Quebradita, Caracas.
«The only faith of life is that they returned the flannel with which they arrested him. Sometimes they receive our packages, sometimes they don’t. For a few days they tell us that he is there and then they deny it. It really is distressing,” says Hilary Ibarra, one of Riera’s sisters.
There is also the situation of Lieutenant Jefferson Dos Ramos (Paramacay case), Sergeants Geomer Martínez Natera and Andrés Paredes Soler (Cotiza case), and National Guard enlisted Daniel Crespo. This group of soldiers, held in Fort Guaicaipuro, were prohibited visits since last April 20.
Relatives barely receive a three and a half minute phone call every 15 days or more. They also do not receive the medications they deliver as part of the package.
Lawyer and human rights defender Tamara Suju reported on October 20 that these people were “vomiting and passing blood” due to health problems. When they demanded their transfer to a medical center, they were locked in a punishment cell. A family member then commented that “there is nothing to say that they are fine.”
*Journalism in Venezuela is carried out in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments in place to punish the word, especially the laws “against hate”, “against fascism” and “against the blockade.” This content was written taking into consideration the threats and limits that, consequently, have been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
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