Caracas, Aug 3 (EFE).- The president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduroannounced this Saturday that 2,000 people have been arrested in the Caribbean nation in protests against the official result of the presidential elections, of which the National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed the president the winner.
“We have 2,000 prisoners captured and from there they go to (the prisons) Tocorón and Tocuyito, maximum punishment, justice. This time there will be no forgiveness, this time there will be no forgiveness, this time there will be Tocorón,” said the president in front of supporters who marched this Saturday in Caracas.
Maduro said that what the detainees did was “very serious” and that there would be “complete justice.”
The president accused the detained protesters of allegedly burning down polling stations, as well as regional CNE headquarters.
“Everyone confesses, everyone, because there has been a strict legal process, led by the Attorney General’s Office, with full guarantees and everyone is convicted and confessed,” he added.
On Thursday, Maduro ordered the detainees who have been arrested in protests in Venezuela against the election results that confirmed him as the winner to be locked up in these two prisons, a move that has been questioned by the majority opposition and a large part of the international community.
“I am preparing two prisons, which I must have ready in 15 days, they were already being prepared (Tocorón and Tocuyito), and all the guarimberos (violent protesters) are going to” these prisons, he said then, during a meeting with businessmen, in which he reiterated that the detainees are part of a coup d’état against him.
Meanwhile, relatives of those arrested in the protests and several NGOs have denounced that the State is preventing them from receiving assistance from private defence and having contact with their families.
On Thursday, the legal coordinator of the NGO Foro Penal, Stefania Migliorini, told EFE that some of those arrested are being presented “in terrorism courts” and without access to a defense with private lawyers.
The NGO Foro Penal counts 939 people arrested in connection with the protests from Monday until 3:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. GMT) on Saturday, including 90 teenagers, 11 civilians and one soldier. EFE
