Relatives of political prisoners asked the UN to provide technical assistance so that “any amnesty or release process meets the standards of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition.”
Dozens of activists and relatives of political prisoners called on the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, this Wednesday the 18th, to speak out about the situation of those detained for political reasons in the country, as well as the releases promised by the Venezuelan authorities since last January 8.
In a statement, delivered to the UN offices in Caracas, relatives asked the UN Secretary General to in his next report or “some form of communication… explicitly state the failure to comply with the promise of releases made by the State.”
They also asked that the resident coordinator, Gianluca Rampolla, the various agencies and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, “urge the Venezuelan State to immediately comply with the promised releases.”
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In the document, prepared by the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners (Clippve), pointed out that “in Venezuela horror has been normalized as state policy,” and what civil society faces “is not merely a situation of political crisis, it is the systematic operation of a machinery designed to break human will.”
Likewise, they mentioned the vigils that have been held for 41 days outside the detention centers, after Jorge Rodríguez’s promise, as well as the hunger strike in Zone 7, where five of the 10 women in the protest have already had to leave due to health problems.
The Committee made specific calls to the various UN agencies and bodies:
- To UN Women to review the situation of the 125 women detained for political reasons.
- They ask the UNDP to create a “humanitarian assistance and economic support fund” for the families of the victims, as they describe arbitrary detention as a “factor of massive impoverishment for families.”
- To the WHO/PAHO, so that doctors “not linked to the State” can carry out independent medical evaluations of each of the detainees in prisons.
- To the Office of the High Commissioner, so that you can immediately visit the detention centers of Rodeo, Helicoide, Yare and women’s prisons.
In addition, they requested the UN to provide technical assistance so that “any amnesty or liberation process meets the standards of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition”, as well as its management so that “humanitarian safe passages” are approved for medical reasons.
*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.
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