Prosecutor Tarek William Saab promised a group of mothers and relatives of post-election prisoners that the releases would occur before December. Patricia Rivas and Theany Urbina, mothers of two teenagers held in Carabobo and Caracas, were left without answers
The releases of people detained for the protests after the presidential elections remained, in many cases, in the pipeline of the Attorney General’s Office, which promised to evaluate the “elements of conviction” in the cases of hundreds of citizens. Relatives demand that Tarek William Saab fulfill the commitments made in private meetings.
Of the 225 people who would be released under precautionary measures, following prosecutor Saab’s statements on November 15, organizations such as the Penal Forum have only been able to verify 169, including 27 teenagers. The criteria for this selection were unknown to the relatives themselves and human rights organizations, who requested that people who needed urgent medical attention be prioritized.
Five days later, the prosecutor said that the justice system evaluated new releases. If there are no “elements of conviction” to demonstrate the criminal responsibility of any of the detainees, that citizen “will be released,” he stated.
Since then, only the case of Mariana Gonzaleza 16-year-old teenager who expressed intentions to end her life and received measures on the night of December 4 to face trial in freedom.
Patricia Rivas, mother of teenager Cristian Pérez, is one of the hundreds of women who participated in a meeting with Tarek William Saab on November 12. That day, they were told “that everyone who was there had already been investigated and that we had no connection to crime and that our children were going to be released before December. “That the way they had to stop the violence that was generated in the country was to have made all the arrests they made and then carry out the investigations.”
The duration of criminal investigations into adolescents should not exceed 10 days, according to the law.
«My son has already been detained for four months. It’s not fair. He is a teenager who has just turned 17 years of age deprived of liberty. He had never suffered from panic, my son had always been an extremely brave, loving child, he had always been protective. We do social work and he is the first one to accompany me. “My son writes love songs, they have nothing to do with violence, not even with terrorism,” he points out.
Patricia’s son was one of the children tortured with beatings and electricity at Fort Paramacay
Cristian, detained near the Plaza de Prebo (north of Valencia), was one of the 14 teenagers presented along with Mariana. He is one of the few from Carabobo who has not yet been released from prison, like Chelsea Venero, Héctor Pinto or Aliangel Rodríguez.
Cristian’s public defense has not made much progress on the case either, since they were not even allowed to present witnesses who prove where he was at the time of his arrest.
«I don’t know if it’s because of overwork, I don’t know if it’s because of so many statements that I have given that that person doesn’t want to talk to me and well, it’s strong because I came with some lawyers to assist my son, because in many moments My own son has told me ‘Mom, I feel like they are not defending me, I feel like they are going to let me die here and I have a whole life ahead of me. and it is not fair that I have not done anything nor have I ever committed a crime to spend all this time here,’” says Patricia.
The trial of the young musician, who remains detained at the Libertador Municipal Police headquarters, is progressing pending his release. The third trial hearing, via telematics, took place on November 20.
Patricia highlights that “the prosecutor speaks very little, in the last two trial continuation hearings you don’t even hear what the lawyer says. Since it is telematics, the issue of communication is complicated. “The judge only said that we had to wait a little longer for the Prosecutor’s Office to finish carrying out its investigations and clarify the facts.”
In the hearings they have also not given him answers to the allegations of torture that his son suffered or the psychological examination that he was promised.
«They put electricity into him so much that they burned his nipples. I personally asked Valencia’s lawyer to do a forensic medical examination because he was quite beaten. The first day I saw him, everywhere I touched him or moved hurt him. “His friend who had just turned 18 had his head broken, and when he saw that he was covered in blood he agreed to make a video,” explained to SuchWhich during the first days of October.
Theany Urbina, mother of Miguel Urbina, is another of the mothers who attended the meeting on November 12 and still has no response from the prosecutor. After that meeting, they only had one other communication but the precautionary measures for the 16-year-old teenager, held in El Cementerio, west of Caracas, never arrived.
«They called three or four mothers of us again, They told us they were reviewing the files. That day my son did not have a trial opening date. They gave me the opening date of Friday (November 29) at 6:00 pm. They told me that my son had a trial opening on December 5,” says Theany.
He fears that, at the rate of other cases where trials have already begun, Miguel will not be able to obtain freedom before December 24. His hearing was rescheduled for January.
«My son is not going to be with me. It doesn’t seem fair to me. My son is not a terrorist as they are making him out to be. They put up such absurd things as resisting authority, when the police came to my son and said ‘Stop, man’ and my son got on the motorcycle. My son did not resist. They put a shirt on his face and beat him, they gave him electricity. “That’s terrorists. Who will answer me for the psychological damage to my son?”
«We know that they are not well. “They are fine at home,” says Theany Urbina, Miguel’s mother.
Like other mothers, Theany must juggle her job to cover the expenses of visiting Miguel and his house. The family dynamic has been affected so much that even simple things, such as his other daughter’s school assignments, are a reminder of the young man’s detention.
«At school they asked him for a photo of his family for Christmas. She asked me ‘mommy, is my brother coming for the holidays?’ How do I tell my daughter that her brother won’t be able to be in that photo? She saw her brother’s cap, how do I tell her that her brother doesn’t even have hair? “What Christmas can I expect if I’m missing an important person in my life?” he laments between sobs.
He also questions the faults of the Prosecutor’s Office itself, which has confused the cases of some detained teenagers and has even gone so far as to ask them directly what the status of their family member is.
«We are not family here and they have confused cases. They ask us if we are family. We are not encouraging people to do things. When they called us they asked us if we were the leaders. “I am not a leader of anything, so you can see it from that point of view, I am just a mother tired of being in need, of having her son unjustly imprisoned,” she says.
Confirmed releases
On the weekend of November 16, the releases of adolescents were recorded in the states of Sucre (1), Lara (1), Anzoátegui (3), Falcón (5), Carabobo (5), La Guaira (5) and Guárico ( 4).
In the case of this first batch of young people released from prison in Carabobo, they were prohibited from leaving the country, required to attend school and report every 30 days; while Jose David Crespothe only teenager released from prison in Lara, must also appear in Caracas courts on the 30th of each month, he cannot leave the country, drive a motorcycle or be away from home late at night.
In addition, the young José David, who has his father Israel detained in Tocorón due to the protests, was prohibited from approaching the place of his detention even though it is close to the place where he watches classes. That situation, the judge told him, would be discussed at the next hearing.
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