This Thursday, Caracas was once again the scene of a new demonstration to demand the freedom of young people and adolescents imprisoned after the post-election protests. “Neither terrorists nor criminals, our boys are innocent!” sang the mothers, family members, activists and members of the organizations of the Enough Repression – Freedom for those imprisoned for protesting campaign”, during the filing of an appeal for constitutional protection before the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) for young people and adolescents who are accused of terrorism and incitement to hatred.

Almost 40 families were present, in a large unitary action where, in addition to the mothers and relatives themselves, activists, human rights organizations, left-wing, union, and community organizations gathered to give strength to the submission of the appeal for protection, a document where In addition, the violation of the most basic rights and the irregularities that occurred during the arrests are exposed.

The mothers and relatives wore white shirts with the images of each of the young prisoners, the vast majority from popular areas, where many were not even protesting, but were still detained for the simple fact of living in a neighborhood or being poor, with accusations that can have sentences of 10, 15 or 30 years, as if they were criminals.

The majority of the arrests were made on July 29 and subsequent days, when a wave of protests broke out in the neighborhoods and popular sectors of Caracas and many other cities in the country, convinced that fraud had occurred, after the announcement of the electoral results where the official organizations granted victory to Maduro. These protests were quelled through a brutally repressive response with contingents of State security forces (police and components of the Armed Forces, such as the National Guard) in conjunction with armed parapolice groups.

As has been reported, in the massive arrests recorded, the violation of the most basic guarantees of the rights to personal freedom, defense and due process has been confirmed; The vast majority were carried out without arrest warrants or search warrants, and many were even detained without participating in the protests, simply for living in a popular neighborhood or being poor.

This Thursday’s action was organized by the Committee of Mothers in Defense of Truth and the organizations that are part of the Enough Repression Campaign – Freedom for prisoners for Protesting, as part of the series of rallies, sit-ins and pickets that are taking place. They have been demanding immediate freedom for all young people and adolescents arbitrarily detained.

Almost all the relatives made complaints about the detention situation of the young people. Thus Marelis Ruiz, a relative of Miguel Urbina, 16 years old, who is detained in a center for adolescents in the Ciudad Caracas Detention Center, in El Cementerio, denounces again that the prisoners “are not being allowed to defend themselves, only because of public defenders. We don’t have a reliable defense that we know is moving for guys. In the Ombudsman’s Office they only tell us to wait, that it is a long process and to have faith.”

For her part, Wendy Liendo, mother of Víctor Uzcátegui, detained in La Guaira, also denounced that “In Tocuyito [centro de reclusión] There are boys who are depressed, who are malnourished. There are boys with serious health problems, several have attempted suicide. We entered the visit on Tuesday after 60 days of not seeing our relatives. Truly, what we demand is freedom, that their human rights be respected. “They don’t let us carry packages, they don’t do sports, they don’t even allow them to exercise inside a cell.”

Thus, the other family members also denounce that “the conditions of confinement in which the detainees are found are inhumane and constitute a clear violation of fundamental rights contained in the Constitution and in criminal laws, through illegal conduct, cruel and inhuman treatment,” which They are executed “by public officials responsible for the custody of those deprived of liberty so that they plead guilty and admit the crimes of which they are accused under duress.”

After the filing of the appeal for constitutional protection, some of the mothers and relatives made statements about the document presented, stating that “here we come to demand the right to freedom, in this document that we have just delivered we expose the right to freedom of defense , to due judicial process, the violation of articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution, protection of constitutional rights and guarantees.” They also emphasize that “what this jurisdiction seeks is the annulment of all the crimes that are accusing our adult relatives, minors who have been detained for almost 65 days and we still have no response,” among other complaints and demands. .

From the Enough Repression Campaign – Freedom for prisoners for protesting, a call is made to human rights organizations, unions, community and political organizations that defend democratic rights to join forces for the cause of freedom of prisoners for protesting and/or living in a popular area.

Protesting is not a crime, neither is being poor!, Enough of repression!, Freedom for prisoners for protesting!, Popular protest is a right, repression is a crime!, are the demands that continue to be raised before the repressive situation imposed by the Maduro government.

Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com



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