The Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal denounced this Wednesday (13) the existence of 240 people – 110 civilians and 130 military – detained in the country, considered political prisoners. There are 226 men and 14 women, and the list includes a minor. “Since 2014, 15,758 political arrests have been registered in Venezuela,” the NGO said, adding that, to date, more than 9,000 people are still subject, “arbitrarily”, to measures restricting their freedom.
On Tuesday (12), the US State Department denounced, in its annual report on human rights, that the government of Nicolás Maduro holds “hundreds” of politically motivated prisoners, many of them in “critical” conditions.
In the document, concerning 2021, the US highlighted that the Venezuelan government “allowed the participation of some opposition candidates” in the November regional elections, but “there were no conditions for free and fair elections”. In addition, negotiations between the government and the opposition, which took place in Mexico between August and September, allowed the return of some “exiled figures” to the country.
“Despite these changes, the Maduro regime continued to hold hundreds of people in prison for political reasons and prevented hundreds of opposition candidates from exercising all their rights to run,” the report criticized.
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