Carmen Teresa Navas, 81, demands proof of life of her son Víctor Hugo Quero Navas, arrested in January of last year. He has visited detention centers and public organizations without obtaining clear answers. According to international law standards, the lack of formal recognition of the detention and the refusal to report its location could constitute a forced disappearance.
At 81 years old, Carmen Teresa Navas carries more than the weight of the years: She has had 14 months of uncertainty since her son, Víctor Hugo Quero Navas, 51 years old, was arrested on January 1, 2025. Since then, the mother has not known if her son is still alive, if he died or where he is.
«They say he is in Rodeo I. I want proof of my son’s life. I want to know if he is alive or dead. “I haven’t seen him for 14 months,” Carmen Navas pleads through tears, who also condemns that no authority gives her a clear answer about her son’s whereabouts.
According to the version of Víctor Quero’s mother, her son was detained in Caracas, exactly half a block from the Vice Presidency, in front of the El Conde hotel, by alleged officials linked to a police officer with whom Carmen claims her son had a personal conflict. He says that since then, Quero has been linked to acts of “terrorism” and treason, accusations that the family denies and considers unfounded.
«They want to smear him, they say that he has a terrorist gang, that he betrayed the country. “They have kidnapped him,” says Carmen Navas, who also claims that they have received calls from alleged officials demanding large sums of euros (although she does not know the exact amount) from an associate of her son in Spain with the promise of releasing him; However, neither she nor Víctor Quero’s partner have agreed to those requests.
*Read also: Nearly 300 political prisoners remain on hunger strike in El Rodeo I, Provea alert
A pilgrimage in search of answers
In these 14 months, Navas says that he has tirelessly toured detention centers and public organizations: he has gone seven times to Rodeo I, and also to the headquarters of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (Dgcim) of Boleíta, to the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin), to the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Police, better known as Zone 7, to the PNB detention center in La Yaguara, to Roca Tarpeya and to the Corps. Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigations (Cicpc) on Urdaneta Avenue, where he says that an official showed him two photos of his son in a blue uniform, barely visible, where he could not fully recognize him.
«They tell me that he is not there. An inspector showed me two photos, one from the front and the other from the profile, but you can’t see him clearly. And then they told me not to file a complaint anymore,” he says.
In March 2025, an official from the Ombudsman’s Office told Carmen Navas that her son Víctor Quero was being held in the El Rodeo I Judicial Capital Boarding School, but every time she goes to that place they deny that he is imprisoned there.
Victor Hugo is a merchant and lived abroad for a time. He has a daughter who lives in Argentina with her mother’s family, after being widowed.
Navas has also gone to the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ombudsman’s Office and local human rights offices without obtaining any response: «No one gives me answers. “No one tells me if he is alive or dead.”
In light of international law, the case of Víctor Hugo Quero Navas brings together elements that can constitute a forced disappearance. The United Nations International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances establishes that this occurs when a person is deprived of liberty by agents of the State—or with their authorization or acquiescence—and the authorities subsequently refuse to recognize that detention or refuse to report their whereabouts, placing them outside the protection of the law.
In his tours of prisons, police headquarters and public organizations, Navas has not been able to obtain formal proof of confinement, access to visits or proof of life. Even when an official told him that his son would be in Rodeo I, in that prison they have repeatedly denied him that he is there; The lack of verifiable information turns this case into a forced disappearance.
Faced with helplessness and emotional exhaustion, Carmen Navas confesses that she feels afraid even for her own life: “I don’t want to involve my other children in this because we are in danger,” she says with a lost look.
Carmen Teresa Navas demands from the authorities information about whether Víctor Hugo is alive, where he is and under what conditions, and that they allow her to see or speak with him; in the last 14 months she has not received a single text message from her son.
*Journalism in Venezuela is carried out in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments in place to punish the word, especially the laws “against hate”, “against fascism” and “against the 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.
Post Views: 7
