Clippve counts 182 political prisoners in the country, including a teenager and elderly people. 10 have dual nationality, two are foreigners and at least 24 are forcibly disappeared. The Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners asserted that “prison has become the exemplary punishment for women who decide to exercise full citizenship.”
Relatives and human rights activists protested this Tuesday the 25th to demand the release of political prisoners who, they noted, suffer from different prison conditions and have been victims of various violations of their rights.
The Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners (Clippve) delivered a document to the United Nations system in Caracas where they demanded that, within the framework of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, they should talk about “state, political and prison violence” of which dozens of Venezuelan women are victims for “raising their voices.”
«Prison has become the exemplary punishment for women who decide to exercise full citizenship. Protecting the freedom of these women is protecting the right of all to participate in public life equally. “Silencing them through prison is denying the very essence of democracy,” the organization stated.
Clippve counts 182 women detained for political reasons, including a teenager and elderly people. 10 have dual nationality, two are foreigners and at least 24 are forcibly disappeared, since their relatives or lawyers do not know their whereabouts.
«There are not 182 people, they are 182 families who, in turn, have other families. It is a chain of people suffering from this whole situation of kidnapping, mistreatment, violation of all our rights,” said Miriam Marrero, mother of Carla Da Silva.
Da Silva, 40 years old and convicted of Operation Gedeón, was missing from August 6 to September 6. «In that month I went crazy: I screamed, I cried, I insulted, I did everything to get my daughter back, because she is my only daughter. “I feel like an orphan of a daughter,” said Mirian Marrero.
Likewise, he said that some political prisoners are seen and classified as “collateral damage.”
“But they don’t realize that this collateral damage destroys lives, and many lives,” he said.
Yesica Morales, sister of Ruth Morales, stressed that her relative “is not a criminal, my sister is innocent. “My sister went out to protest because her right was not respected… She aspired to a better future for her daughters and for herself.”
Ruth Morales was arrested on August 6, 2024 inside her home in the town of Camaguán (Guárico state) for participating in two post-election protests. The 28-year-old woman was studying four semesters of education and is the mother of two girls, ages 8 and 10, who have not been able to see her since she has been under arrest.
She is accused of inciting hatred, violence and fuel trafficking. In the year and three months that she has been detained, she has only been presented once. «They have not held hearings, they have not put her on trial. That was at the end of October last year. They don’t give us any details, we haven’t seen the file, we don’t know about the public defender who is supposedly a lawyer from Caracas,” the sister denounced.
Ruth Morales is currently being held in a police station in Calabozo. Her family is able to visit her and deliver food once a week and her mother has had to take care of the girls.
“The women who are political prisoners today are not alone,” said Yesica Morales.
In the state of Barinas there are six women imprisoned for political reasons. One of them is Randal Telles, sentenced a month and a half ago to 15 years in prison for an alleged video against Nicolás Maduro.
In the state of Barinas there are six women detained for political reasons. One of them is Anyarlis Sánchez, 21 years old, who was studying law and suspended her studies to work.
Her mother Yusmely Terán reported that she was arrested on July 29, 2024 when she was leaving her job at a cookie company. She was held for a year and five months in the 331st command of the Barinas National Guard. 15 days ago she was transferred along with the other five women to the Barinas Judicial Confinement Center.
«My daughter is innocent, she has nothing to do with politics. He was just leaving work,” said Terán.
Sánchez was charged with the crimes of terrorism and incitement to hatred. «The public defender says that she has filed letters but the court does not give answers. The witnesses testified before 45 days, they said that my daughter was just passing through, but nothing else has happened.
Tiffany Colmenares, another of those detained on July 29, 2024 in Barinas, is experiencing a similar situation. Her mother Carmen Castillo highlighted that it was some hooded men who took her from the neighborhood where she lived.
The 21-year-old girl was accused of the alleged crimes of terrorism, incitement to hatred and resistance to authority. He has a three-year-old child that he has not been able to see. He has also presented health problems such as persistent rhinitis, urinary infections or circulation problems due to the conditions of confinement.
«My daughter has a lot of depression because of that because she left her little son… What my daughter tells me is to help her, that she doesn’t want to be there anymore. “He tells me that he wants to be with his son, that he can’t take it anymore, that he loves himself until he dies,” Sánchez said.
Violence against political prisoners
The document delivered by the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners denounces the torture and sexual violence that women detained for political reasons have faced, as well as the humiliation and cruel treatment towards family members such as invasive searches, sexist insults or forced nudity.
“They humiliate us, they mistreat us, they offend us, they subject us to shameful situations that seem to be invented by some sick misogynist who makes these decisions so that someone without their own criteria can comply with them,” said Miriam Marrero.
She reported that Da Silva, while she was detained at the Sebin Helicoide, “could not talk to an official, she could not want to talk to the director. “She had to look for a man who would intercede for her as if women were incapable of expressing our ideas.”
Marrero also questioned that the majority of those benefiting from releases are men. «Women are always relegated, you see the overcrowding in women’s prisons. Because? Because they are unaware of their existence, they are anonymous, they disappear.
Clippve made a series of requests to UN Women in its document, including:
- Urge the Venezuelan State, unequivocally and publicly, to immediately and unconditionally release all women arbitrarily detained for political reasons.
- Incorporate a specific section on political prisoners in UN Women’s global reports on violence against women and repressive states.
- Create an international monitoring mechanism with a gender perspective on women deprived of liberty for political reasons in Venezuela.
- Guarantee protocols with a differentiated approach for pregnant and lactating detainees, older adults, adolescents and those responsible for the care of minors.
- Facilitate family reunification measures, psychosocial care and comprehensive reparation for women survivors of political imprisonment and sexual torture.
*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.
Post Views: 393
