MADRID 4 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Political prisoners from the Carabobo Judicial Confinement Center, known as Tocuyito, and from the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) in El Helicoide, began a hunger strike on Friday afternoon to demand their release and denounce mistreatment in custody.
The Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners (CLIPP) has reported through its account on the social network failure to fulfill promises to release fifty prisoners in Tocuyito.
“Political prisoner Héctor Alonso Esqueda Nieves called his relatives to report that he has started a hunger strike in protest to demand his immediate release, since he is innocent,” explained the CLIPP in X.
Esqueda Nieves, father of three minors and manager of the Cojedes state landfill, was joined in “a gesture of solidarity and resistance in the face of injustice” by two other political prisoners whose identities have not been revealed.
The Committee has noted that Esqueda Nieves, accused of terrorism and inciting hatred, was detained by officials of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) on August 3 at a service station in the state of Cojedes, “while carrying out errands.”
“We call on international organizations to condemn these serious violations of human rights and act in the face of this alarming situation that affects political prisoners and their families, who face an evident systematic violation of fundamental rights in Venezuela,” they appealed.
At least forty political prisoners from El Helicoide have joined the Tocuyito detainees to demand justice for the cruel and inhuman treatment suffered during an “arbitrary and strong search”, as well as their immediate release.
“Political prisoners are exhausted from the constant abuses, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment they face in the Venezuelan government prisons. Enough of repression. The Venezuelan State has the responsibility of guaranteeing the life, physical and psychological integrity of all detainees in its custody, and must respond for the serious human rights violations that are being reported,” the Committee has highlighted.
Last Monday, the Public Ministry reported 413 releases of people detained during the protests following the presidential elections of July 28, in which the opposition denounces electoral fraud in favor of President Nicolás Maduro.
However, the NGO Foro Penal has reported that at the end of the year there were a record number of 1,794 political prisoners, the majority detained during protests against Maduro.