Post-election protests: OVP warns about the damage that prison causes to detained teenagers

Humberto Prado, director of the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory (OVP), explained that the Staying in jail can cause significant and irreparable damage to adolescents and adults, especially those who were unjustly detained during the post-election protests.

“Prison does terrible damage and leaves an indelible mark on the detained children and adults that they will never forget in their lives, that is why the damage caused to people is irreparable and therefore it is important to talk about it, discuss it and treat it,” Prado indicated during the workshop “The legal and illegal aspects of Venezuelan justice”, held at the Faculty of Political and Legal Sciences of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), on Monday, September 30.

Prado criticized that two months after the arrests, There are still prisoners who have not been able to see their families or communicate with them.

“The Organic Penitentiary Code (COP) establishes that matters related to visits will be contained in the regulations of this Code. However, the COP, approved in 2015 and reformed in 2021, still does not have regulations and is at the discretion of those who have these people in their custody,” he noted.

Likewise, he highlighted that Detainees are denied the right to have their trusted lawyer and they urge them to take responsibility for the acts of terrorism, with the assistance of a public defender who follows instructions from the regime, even if they are innocent.

The OVP representative stressed that it is important to insist on the defense of those arbitrarily detained in post-election protests, who must be released immediately and without restrictions, coupled with the fact that this record must be erased because it condemns them for life at the national and international level.

Lawyer Joel García added that those detained in the electoral context do not face a legal problem but a political one, since the government of Nicolás Maduro attributes a crime to any person and does not allow them “the minimum” which is their right to defense.

“Currently no one has the right to access a lawyer they trust. We have a large number of detained adolescents, who although it is true can commit crimes, the processes of adolescents are different from the processes of adults. The Lopnna establishes that these processes are not punitive but rather restorative and even educational, because the adolescent has to be accompanied by his parents and representatives in these processes and in this case the parents or representatives have not been allowed to be in that process. educational and restorative process,” he explained.

Five teenagers arrested in post-election protests go to trial

This week, the NGO A Window to Freedom reported that five of the 68 teenagers who are detained for having participated in the post-election protests were put on trial and will be prosecuted by a court with jurisdiction over terrorism.

One of the young people was identified as Diomer Gómer, 17 years old, who is being held in the Caracas City Care Unit, located in El Cementerio. While the other four minors are imprisoned in a police command in the state of Yaracuy.

Gómez’s relatives told the NGO that the preliminary hearing was held in the absence of their representative, which represents a violation of the law. He was accused of committing the alleged crimes of terrorism, incitement to hatred and qualified theft.

Mothers and sisters reported that minors have been beaten, suffocated and subjected to electric shocks during interrogations. These actions would have been carried out to force them to confess crimes or intimidate them.

At least 68 teenagers remain detained in various states of the country since July 29 after being involved in protests against the presidential elections, where the CNE declared Nicolás Maduro the winner, according to the Penal Forum.