Dozens of Venezuelans held a march on Wednesday (11) that ended at the Brazilian Embassy in Caracas, where they delivered a letter addressed to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with a request that the PT member mediate the release of political prisoners from Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship.
According to information from the EFE agency, in the letter, the protesters highlighted that “acts of state terrorism are being committed in Venezuela as a consequence of the loss of legal and popular legitimacy of the current government” since “its defeat” in the presidential election in July, whose official result – Maduro’s victory – they considered a “fraud”.
“The current Venezuelan government is implementing a wave of repression and political persecution on a large scale, through arbitrary and illegal detentions, murders, torture, sexual violence, forced disappearances and other inhumane treatments, which causes more than 2,400 Venezuelans to be unjustly deprived of their freedom,” the letter added.
In an interview with EFE, Diego Casanova, a relative of one of those detained in the post-electoral repression by Chavistas, said that he was received by an embassy official, to whom the document was handed over.
“He [Lula] knows very well [a situação] and he knows, first-hand, what it is like to be a political prisoner, which is why we asked for his mediation,” said Casanova.
Lula did not recognize Maduro or opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winners of the recent Venezuelan presidential election and has demanded, together with Colombia, that the voting records by electoral section of the election be released.
Last weekend, Maduro’s dictatorship laid siege to the Argentine Embassy, where six members of the Venezuelan opposition are taking refuge and whose custody is being held by Brazil.
The Chavista regime went as far as revoking Brazilian custody of the diplomatic representation, but the Itamaraty said it would only accept transferring the functions to another State indicated by Argentina.
The siege ended after González, who was seen by the opposition, the United States, Argentina and other countries as the winner of the July 28 presidential election, left Venezuela for political asylum in Spain.
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