The Attorney General of the Republic, Tarek William Saab, pointed out that the minors detained for having participated in the post-electoral violence are between 16 and 17 years old, so it is false that there are children and pre-adolescents in Venezuelan prisons, as extremist sectors of the opposition would have us believe.
The statement was made by Saab during an interview conducted by Miguel Pérez Pirela on the program “Desde donde sea” (From Wherever), broadcast by La Iguana TV.
The head of the criminal action stated that Venezuelan legislation stipulates that for someone to be considered a child, they must be in the age range between newborn and 10 years old.
“In Venezuela, children linked to any type of crime are not liable, not even pre-adolescents, those between 11 and 13 years old. So those who have been arrested as minors are those who are 16 and 17 years old and have confessed that they were paid, that they were deceived, that they were even given motorcycles so that they could make noise in the centers that were being attacked,” he said.
Saab reflected on the fact that minors, like everywhere else in the world, cannot vote. “How is it possible that if a minor does not have the right to vote, he is going to protest against election results that did not convince him, when he does not even have the right to vote? This is truly disgusting,” he said.
He reiterated that 60 percent of those arrested, including adults, were not even registered with the National Electoral Council (CNE), and confessed to having received money to carry out acts of vandalism and provoke all kinds of violence.
He also recalled that since the so-called “guarimbas” began, the extremist opposition has been using minors, which is inexcusable from every point of view.
The prosecutor also referred to the freedoms granted, warning that the State is responsible for the freedom and review of the measures taken by the detainees. “It is not the mercenary NGOs that, in order to justify the thousands of dollars given to them by USAID (…) are savannah outside the prisons, outside the courts,” he denounced.
He said that NGOs are even giving a form to relatives to make them believe that they are the ones who secure the freedom of the detainees and in this way proceed to justify the payments made to them from abroad.
