Caracas, Sep 18 (EFE).- A group of relatives of the teenagers detained in Venezuela reported on Wednesday that The minors suffered “torture” in detention centers, where they were transferred after being arrested in the context of protests against the results of the July 28 elections, which ratified Nicolás Maduro as president-elect.
Dionexis García, the sister of a 17-year-old boy, told EFE that he was arrested by the police when he was inside a friend’s house on August 2, after protests against Maduro’s reelection took place in all regions of the country on July 29 and 30.
“My brother was a victim of torture in ‘Zone 7’ (as the Bolivarian National Police cells located in the east of Caracas are known) They put a hood on him, and electrocuted him, with the intention of forcing him to record a video where he says that they paid him 50 dollars to go out and protest.Garcia denounced.
He assured that his brother He was arrested “without an arrest warrant” and who was accused of the crimes of “terrorism and inciting hatred” despite the fact that “he did not go out on the streets” or participate in the protests that broke out at the time, encouraged by the accusation of electoral fraud made by the main opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD).
He explained that, after 48 days of the arrest and without having received “any response” to the requests for release, several relatives of the minors decided to gather together to collect food and personal hygiene products, donated voluntarily by citizens, to deliver to the detainees on the two days established for visits.
“We are workers, hard-working people who do not have resources. We want to make a call (for collaboration) because being poor is not a crime,” said the woman while waiting for more donations in a Caracas square.
Near her, Theany Urbina, 32, chanted slogans in support of her 16-year-old son, also arrested on August 2 and still in prison, along with 58 other minors across the country, according to records from the NGO Foro Penal, which leads the defense of those considered political prisoners.
“We are collecting money because we don’t have the money to bring soap and that kind of thing, because we can’t work, we are desperate, we don’t have time to work because we have to be with our children,” said Urbina, who works as a manicurist.
She insisted that her son did not go out to protest, but five days after the elections, “two police officers came by and took him away” when “he was eating a sweet in front of the house.”
Relatives of the detainees showed photographs of their loved ones, waved a banner with the phrase ‘Enough of criminalizing those who fight’ and, at the end of the protest, collected various canned foods, as well as razors, toothpaste, deodorant, cookies, among other products.
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2024-09-19 19:46:09
