In Venezuela there are currently four teenagers detained for political reasons. Abraham Rivero and Luisneidel Zúñiga turned to a year imprisoned in La Guaira. Ángel González will also meet 365 days arrested on August 9, while Gabriel Rodríguez will turn seven months under that day. The Prosecutor’s Office assured his relatives that he would review his files
The repression unleashed by the authorities since July 29, 2024 still keeps teenagers after bars. Four young people, all 17 years old, are in detention centers for minors in the Lara and La Guaira states for alleged political facts. Their relatives maintain their innocence and claim that “they cannot pay for what others did.”
Abraham Rivero and Luisneidel Zúñiga were arrested on the night of July 29 of last year in Macuto by hooded in a black truck, without plates and were subsequently delivered to the Secretariat of Citizen Security of La Guaira. Ángel González was arrested without a court order in his home on August 9 for his alleged participation in the demolition of a statue of Hugo Chávez. Gabriel Rodríguez was arbitrarily arrested in Cabudare on January 9, when trying to reach an ambulatory, for “looks like a guarimbero.”
A week ago, the Prosecutor’s Office He cited the families of the four teenagers and informed them that they would review the files. Everyone expects that review to end in precautionary measures to get them out of prison.
“We hope in the name of God,” says Joany Méndez, Aunt de Gabriel. The young baseball player, who had barely initiated a temporary job in an artisanal bakery, sent a letter to the prosecutor Tarek William Saab where he regrets not being able to graduate with his classmates, but also points out that “many already know of my case and know that I am not a terrorist. I am only a good young man who is denying her dreams.”
*Also read: one year without justice
Méndez comments that his nephew is still afflicted by not being able to fulfill his bachelor’s activities with his teammates. On July 18 was the “last bell” and last 21 he had to be signing his minutes.
“He does not understand how there are people who did commit a crime and give him benefits and he, who did not commit any, do not listen to it,” says the teenager’s aunt. To the stage within the prison, the trial against him and the restrictions imposed by Judge Dayana Castillo, who takes the case, are added.
On June 19, Gabriel turned 17 in prison. They had approved a permission to take the cake, says his aunt, but “then the judge called and discarded the trade.” The trial hearings also advance without forceful evidence against the young man.
“In total there were six guards (who testified) and each gave a different version. Some of the guards first said they found two rubbers, then said they were sticks, stones and gasoline. They said there were 20 officials and then said that there were eight,” says Méndez, who insists the prosecution to review the cases and grant him freedom.
Marian Mayé Pérez, mother of Luisdeidel Zúñiga, also clings to that possibility. “They did not tell us if they were going to free them, just have to wait. I really hope that this ends this.”
Luisneidel was arrested with Abraham and two other young people. The group was beaten and detained in the Caraballeda retainer. They are accused of terrorism, road obstruction, hatred and damage to heritage.
Marian comments that her son “has been calm,” although he reiterates that “they can’t pay for what others did.”
That also points to Armando Rivero, Abraham’s father. “My son wants to get out of there as soon as possible because he can’t stand it anymore. Why will he keep paying something he did not do? He has become very ill and psychologically has not been well. I have raised my boy since childhood and I know him.”
He comments that the visits are two days a week, but he must take food every day. “Despite what is happening, he is a strong boy. The times I have been able to talk to him tell him to be strong, that this will happen. Believing in the Lord because he is the only one who can help us.”
*Also read: the lives rewritten after July 28
In the case of Angel, he was arrested on August 9, 2024 after the Guaira police officers were looking for him in his home last night and threatened his father to arrest him.
His sister Mirbelis González points out that the young man, who has a seven -month -old son who has not been able to meet, was accused by a neighbor of the area of having participated in the protests in rejection of the results of the presidential ones, but the police did not even find in the house the clothes that supposedly carried that day.
He was also accused with the rest of the adolescents arrested on July 29. His judgments were annulled by a court of the criminal system of adolescents with competence in terrorism “due to lack of evidence”; However, the criminal processes began again under the same accusations.
The allegations of torture against the adolescent have not been attended, as well as the requests to be seen by a specialist doctor due to the abscesses and insulin problems that he has suffered.
“He is a healthy person who liked to play football with his neighbors, liked to work. He is the smallest of all of us and we never thought he was going to live this situation. It’s hard to see him in this situation behind some bars,” says González.
*Journalism in Venezuela is exercised in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments arranged for the punishment of the word, especially the laws “against hatred”, “against fascism” and “against 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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