The opposition party Voluntad Popular, led by Leopoldo López and in which Juan Guaidó has spent a good part of his career, demanded this Sunday the freedom and respect for human rights of 337 detainees whom they consider political prisoners.
“Political prisoners deserve to be free, along with their families and loved ones. Fighting and defending democracy is not a crime. We demand the freedom of the more than 300 political prisoners of Nicolás Maduro,” wrote Voluntad Popular in Twitter.
He affirmed that there are 316 men and 21 women who are detained for political reasons, for which they ask for respect for human rights and that they can return to their homes.
“Of the more than 300 political prisoners of Maduro, 162 are military and 175 civilians. Opposing a criminal dictatorship that violates human rights is not a crime, but a citizen’s duty that does not deserve any prison, much less torture, “added the formation.
He also maintained that currently 50 of the inmates have ailments and illnesses and almost 100 “have been denied medical assistance.”
For its part, the NGO Foro Penal stated on Saturday that there are 240 “political prisoners” in Venezuela, one more than in its last report published on March 29.
Among those considered political prisoners, there are 226 men and 14 women and one minor, the organization dedicated to the defense of human rights detailed on Twitter.
He also indicated that 110 are civilians and 130 are military.
On February 10, an investigation by Amnesty International (AI), in conjunction with the Penal Forum and the Center for Defenders and Justice (CDJ), revealed the correlation between arbitrary arrests for political reasons in the Caribbean country and the “stigmatizations” created from various media.
“This analysis showed that, while in 2019, the general correlation between both variables (arbitrary arrests and stigmatization) was 29%, in 2020 it increased to 42% and in the first half of 2021 it reached 77%,” AI detailed in a press release.
The director of the Penal Forum, Gonzalo Himiob, added that “there is no doubt about the close relationship between agents of the Venezuelan State; that is, public officials, public and private media, and attacks against human rights defenders”, which, in his opinion, “should not go unpunished”.
