Exactly three years ago, at 3 a.m. on November 14, 2020, agents from the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence entered the home of Guillermo Zárraga and arbitrarily detained him because they considered him a threat to the interests of the Government of Nicolás Maduro. ¿Who is William? and why do we demand their freedom?
Guillermo Zárraga is a 59-year-old engineer who worked as a technical operator for Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), the country’s state oil company, at the Cardón refinery of the Catalytic Complex, located in Coro, Falcón State. He was also a union leader of the company’s Single Workers Union. Today he awaits an unfair trial without guarantees from the Yare II prison, in the State of Miranda, while his health situation is so precarious that it puts his life at risk.
Like so many other victims of the Venezuelan Government’s policy of repression, Guillermo’s life was stopped by an accusation without support in facts or verified evidence. According to the accusation of the prosecutor’s office, a body closely aligned with the authorities of the executive branch, Guillermo is accused of “treason to the country” and “association to commit a crime”, as part of an incoherent account of events linked to a citizen of the United States. United States, who was supposedly an agent of that country’s intelligence agency. However, it would seem that the main evidence of Guillermo’s alleged guilt is a photograph with the prominent opposition leader at the time, Juan Guaidó. While the alleged foreign intelligence agent was released, Guillermo remains inexplicably detained.
Since his arrest three years ago, Guillermo has suffered a dramatic 20 kilo weight loss, cardiac syncope, several fainting spells due to malnutrition, and repeated denials of medical care. As for a large part of the population deprived of liberty in Venezuela, it is their relatives who must provide them with food, drinking water and any other basic necessities, despite the fact that they themselves do not have the economic means to meet these needs due to the complex humanitarian emergency suffered by millions of people in the country. In fact, more than 25% of Venezuela’s total population has had to flee the country due to massive violations of their economic and social rights, and systematic and widespread violations of civil and political rights.
In Venezuela there is no judicial independence. The judicial and security authorities are under the power of Nicolás Maduro. He is responsible for the policy of repression that keeps hundreds of people unjustly detained and he is the one who must ensure the immediate and unconditional freedom of Guillermo Zárraga. While he remains unjustly detained, the Minister of Popular Power for Penitentiary Affairs, Celsa Bautista, must guarantee Guillermo’s health, integrity and life, ensuring that he receives urgent medical attention. His situation is not the only one. International Amnesty issued a global urgent action to demand that the minister protect the health and life of Guillermo and Emirlendris Benitez, who also suffers a critical health situation while being unjustly detained in Venezuela, partly as a result of the torture she suffered during her detention.
Since his arrest three years ago, Guillermo has suffered a dramatic weight loss of 20 kilos
The States of the international community that declare to follow with interest the human rights situation in the country, such as Spain, Argentina or Chile, cannot ignore cases such as that of Guillermo Zárraga, Emirlendris Benítez, or that of the human rights defender Javier Tarazona, nor that of university student John Álvarez, among hundreds of other people whose lives have been unjustly stopped by the Venezuelan Government’s policy of repression. Nor should they ignore the incessant complaints from Venezuelan civil society; of the lapidary reports from UN organizations; of the investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court into crimes against humanity in Venezuela, the first involving a country in the Americas; or the investigation opened in Argentina under the principle of universal jurisdiction, also for crimes against humanity.
The international community must maintain international scrutiny and the fight for justice for the very serious and ongoing human rights violations in Venezuela. Hundreds of people continue to be unjustly deprived of their liberty for the political interests of the Government. We call on the international community to join forces to achieve his immediate and unconditional freedom and the definitive cessation of the policy of repression in Venezuela.
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