Vasco was released in 2020, when he denounced the multiple tortures of which he was a victim while he was detained in the Santa Ana military prison, in the state of Táchira
Vasco da Costa, a former Venezuelan political prisoner and human rights defender, died on the night of Saturday, August 13, after being in a coma due to a massive stroke he suffered on the 7th of this month. His brothers Ana María and Tony da Costa reported that the wake will take place in the Chapel of the Padre Machado hospital, in Montalbán, Caracas.
Multiple NGOs and activists have mourned his death, including the Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy and Alfredo Romero, president of the organization Foro Penal Venezolano, which provides legal assistance to those detained for political reasons in Venezuela.
Also Tamara Suju, human rights defense lawyer and Executive Director of the Casla Institute, stated that “Vasco leaves a great void in his nationalist movement, in the hearts of his friends in struggle, in his family and in those who met him in the streets fighting for the freedom of his country.
#Venezuela. My dear friend Vasco Manuel Da Costa Morales (1959-2022) is gone. The Political Prisoner of Chavez and Maduro. Victim of the worst torture that can be committed against a human being. His testimony and his case in the @IntlCrimCourt attest to their Persecution, Courage and Fight. pic.twitter.com/nhooxkeCNY
— Tamara Suju (@TAMARA_SUJU) August 14, 2022
At the beginning of August, in an audio, Ana María da Costa, Vasco’s sister, asked for prayer for the politically persecuted and reported that after a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) he was in a coma. “These people tortured him so much, so much, that Vasco’s health when he left the last time was not the same,” he said.
The former political prisoner was tortured in the Santa Ana prison, in the state of Táchira, between May 17 and 18, 2018. The torture he received caused the opposition activist to suffer a carcinoma in his left eye, removed in 2019 in the Caracas Military Hospital.
It was not until September 2020 that the political scientist and activist of the Venezuelan Nationalist Movement was released from prison and denounced the “horrible” torture he faced while detained in a military prison. He said at that time that they took his foot and hit him with a “mandarria” (hammer or iron mallet to insert or remove the bolts in the sides of the ships).
“They beat you, they put me face down in a water well, I almost died, they suffocate you with a bag and they put some kind of spikes on your nipples and they give you electricity, they blew out my whole eye,” he said.
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