Since last Monday, September 30, Venezuelan universities began the restart of their activities, suspended after the presidential elections on July 28. But Dozens of university students, including students and professors, have not been able to return to work because they are victims of political persecution.
According to records from the Human Rights Observatory of the University of Los Andes (ODH-ULA), At least 45 university students have been arrested after the elections. Most have already been released, but more than 15 remain in prison accused of crimes of terrorism, incitement to hatred, treason, conspiracy and resistance to authority. Some of those who regained their freedom maintain precautionary measures and others suffered administrative sanctions. All of these arrests were arbitrary. and included short-term forced disappearances, as denounced in its most recent report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela.
Politically motivated repression also occurs within the universities controlled by the Venezuelan regime and that make up the parallel university system described in a report for this Observatory. On September 11, 71 TSU students in Criminalistics and Criminal Investigation were expelled from the National Experimental University of Security (UNES), Catia headquarters, Capital District, after being accused by the director of this educational institution of protesting on election day and denouncing the assisted vote in favor of Nicolás Maduro.
Faced with threats and intimidation, some university students have decided to flee the country or remain underground for fear of being arrested, while others have reported persecution. All cases registered by the ODH-ULA respond to state terrorism practices implemented by Venezuelan officials, which have been denounced by international organizations and human rights organizations.
Read more: UN Mission in Venezuela points out State crimes that are crimes against humanity
Detainees are part of six universities
The ODH-ULA has been able to identify 24 of the 45 university students detained after the elections. Nine are from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), six from the ULAfour from UNES, three from the University of Carabobo (UC), one from the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB) and one from the Universidad de Oriente (UDO). The other 21 detainees, who have already been released along with four of those identified, did not want to provide their information for fear of reprisals.
The arrests began on July 28, when students from the UNES of Catia, Capital District, reported that the director of that institution, José Rigoberto Betancourt Moya, “assisted” their vote to favor the official candidate. That day, the media TalCual reported on the disappearance of 25 students of that institution, after protesting the irregularity in the voting process.
TalCual later reported that four of those 25 missing students were actually detained in the Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Bolivarian National Police (DIP-PNB) of Maripérez, located in the Libertador municipality of Caracas. Days later, when it was reported about the expulsion of 71 students from that UNES headquarters—among whom are the 25 who disappeared on election day—relatives included two more on the list of detainees. The six students were released on August 2, but remained under investigation for alleged “incitement to hate” and their belongings, including their cell phones, have not been returned.
Between July 28 and August 4, a week after the elections, another 35 university students were detained in the electoral and post-electoral context: 29 are students, four professors, a doctor who recently graduated from the ULA (who was still fulfilling the mandatory rural medicine service) and an athlete about to join the UCV as a student. Of these, four students and one professor are from the ULA.
Four teachers detained and at least one in exile
Two of the detained teachers are also activists and human rights defenders. It is about Edni Lopezwho was arrested on August 4 and released five days later with precautionary measures, and Aura Janesky Lehmanndirector of the Legal Clinic Service of the UCAB. Both were arbitrarily apprehended at the Maiquetía airport, when they were preparing to travel out of the country. During their detentions they were also victims of short-term forced disappearance.
For its part, Professor Salvador Riveraassigned to the Chair of Neuroscience of the School of Psychology of the UCV, was arrested in Caracas on July 29 when he was passing by a place where there was a peaceful protest in rejection of the results announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE). He is currently being held in the Tocorón prison, located in the state of Aragua, without the right to a defense of his confidence and far from his family.
The other detained university professor is Gustavo Torresfrom the Department of Social Sciences of the Trujillo Center of the ULA. His arrest occurred on July 30, along with those of two students from that same institution. His father reported on September 6 that Torres was transferred from Trujillo to the Tocuyito prison, in the state of Carabobo, more than 400 kilometers away.
Although he is not detained, Carlos Brachohead of communications for the Democratic Unitary Platform and professor at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), decided to flee the country after being persecuted and spending days without leaving his residence because a van from the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) was waiting for him. outside. He is currently a refugee in Uruguay, from where he recounted the persecution he suffered right after the elections.
Persecuted, intimidated and forced underground
The ODH-ULA has heard of cases of other university students who remain in hiding after receiving threats of arrest for their activism in opposition political parties. one of them is David Torresmedical student at the ULA and member of the Vente Venezuela party in Méridawho reported on social networks about his forced shelter.
«All my colleagues from the ULA Faculty of Medicine are returning today, September 30, to continue with our academic year and I cannot do so because I am under threat, experiencing firsthand the horror of state terrorism that is applied in Venezuela just to defend popular sovereignty,” Torres wrote in X.
For your part Marlon Diazpresident of the Federation of University Centers of the University of Carabobo and councilor of the Naguanagua municipality of Carabobo state, reported on August 18 that Sebin patrols were patrolling his house between three and four times a day. That day, strangers left him an envelope with a threat: “I have you in my sights. “Don’t eat the light,” said one piece of paper.
The ULA professor and member of the NGO Transparencia Venezuela, Christi Rangel, as well as the director of the ODH-ULA, Mayda Hocevar, and this same Observatory, have also been victims of intimidation and defamation through social networkswhere an Instagram user has spread photographs of himself and other members of the ULA to discredit the human rights activism work they do, through lies, insults and disqualifications.
On September 27, the international magazine Nature published a report where Venezuelan scientists, many of them also university professors and researchers, confess to being afraid to speak publicly about the deterioration of science in Venezuela, due to the possibility of suffering reprisals from the government. Some of those interviewed on condition of anonymity said that “the Venezuelan investigation was already censored.”
The ODH-ULA expresses its deep concern about the increase in state repression and political persecution against university students in Venezuela and demands that the Venezuelan State release all political prisoners and guarantee all individual freedoms, including freedom of opinion, expression, press and academic. None of the 45 university students arrested have committed crimes of terrorism, incitement to hatred or treason. Neither do those who are persecuted, threatened and forced underground.
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