The IACHR granted precautionary measures in favor of journalist Ana Carolina Guaita, detained in La Guaira on August 20. The inter-American organization believes that the journalist, whose whereabouts are officially unknown, is in an urgent and serious situation.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) reported on Tuesday, August 27, that precautionary measures of protection were granted to journalist Ana Carolina Guaita, a journalist in Vargas for the news portal La Patilla and daughter of Xiomara Barreto and Carlos Guaita, both leaders of the Copei party in the coastal state, considering that she is in a situation of “serious and urgent risk of irreparable damage to her rights” in Venezuela.
According to the statement issued by the IACHR, the administration of Nicolás Maduro is requested to adopt the necessary measures to protect the life and integrity of Guaita; specifying that it must indicate whether the social communicator is in the custody of the State and why that was the reason for her arrest, or what measures are being taken to find out her whereabouts.
“The Commission considers it necessary for the State to clarify whether the beneficiary was brought before a competent court to review her detention if she was charged with crimes. If not, it should specify the reasons why she has not been released to date,” the text states.
It also demands that the Venezuelan authorities implement the necessary measures so that Ana Carolina Guaita can carry out her work without being subjected to threats, acts of violence or harassment. It clarifies that the precautionary measures granted “do not constitute a prejudgment regarding a possible petition before the inter-American system in which violations of the rights protected in the American Convention and other applicable instruments are alleged.”
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The National Union of Press Workers (SNTP) denounced the night of Tuesday, August 20 the arrest of journalist Ana Carolina Guaita by alleged officials of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) in La Guaira.
Guaita, who is a journalist for the digital media La Patilla and daughter of political leaders of Copei, was arrested around 6:00 pm in the El Rincón urbanization, in the Maiquetía area, according to several relatives confirmed to SNTP.
Two days later, Journalist Vladimir Villegas reported that Guaita Barreto was detained at the headquarters of the State Government’s Security Directorate, according to what relatives told him.
Through his social networks, Villegas referred to the complaint of Guaita’s relatives that the head of that office, Andrés Goncalvez, told his mother, politician Xiomara Barreto, that the young woman would be free if she turned herself in.
Ana Carolina Guaita Barreto’s parents are Xiomara Barreto and Carlos Guaita, both leaders of the Copei party in Vargas; who actively participated in the electoral campaign of opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.
According to NTN24Barreto and Guaita managed to leave the country amid the escalation of repression and political persecution by state security forces after the elections, in which the National Electoral Council proclaimed Nicolás Maduro without publishing details of the minutes.
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