Julio Velazco, a 51-year-old leader of Vente Venezuela, was arrested on September 2, 2025. He was charged with the alleged crimes of criminal association, terrorism and incitement to hatred.
Almost five months after the arrest of Vente Venezuela activist Julio Velazco, the family of this political prisoner was able to confirm that he is alive and imprisoned at the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) headquarters in Boleíta, better known as Zone 7. Velazco was detained exactly 147 days ago and his whereabouts and state of health were unknown since he was transferred in December.
After 18 permanent days of vigil outside this detention center, family members of the detainees were allowed to visit. Specifically to wives, mothers and other direct relatives.
“During all this time we did not know anything about him: neither how his health was, nor what he ate, nor what condition he was in,” denounced his son Marcos Velazco, who is also a leader of Vente Venezuela and is in exile to avoid being imprisoned.
He reported through his count in X that Julio Velazco is kidnapped and that his loved ones are being victims of psychological torture.
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According to the information shared by Marcos Velazco, his father is in severe confinement conditions and condemned that for weeks he only received food once a day, “under a meager and unbalanced diet.” He added that he sleeps on a mat approximately three centimeters thick, a situation that he claims aggravates pre-existing cervical trauma.
He also said that his father suffers from anxiety due to not having information about his children and other family members.
“Unfair imprisonment is torture,” reiterated the family member, who insisted that Julio Velazco is innocent and asked Delcy Rodríguez, head of the Executive, and Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly, for his immediate release; as well as the release of all political prisoners.
At the beginning of January, Vente Venezuela denounced the transfer to an unknown place and “without a court order” of Julio Velazco on December 27.
Velazco, 51, was arrested on September 2, 2025 and remained for 47 days in “a condition of forced disappearance, without his family or legal defense having official information about his location.”
The activist was presented “telematically” before the 4th Control Court with jurisdiction over terrorism and was charged with the alleged crimes of criminal association, terrorism and incitement to hatred. The judge in the case assigned him as a place of confinement the Directorate of Special Investigations (DIE) of the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) in La Quebradita, Caracas.
In Zone 7, according to information from relatives, there remain at least twenty people – most of them men – detained for political reasons. None had had contact with their family member or confirmation of their place of detention since the moment of their arrest.
*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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