Relatives of detainees in Tocuyito: “They are dying of hunger”

So far they are all going to trial, none of them accepted the proposal to plead guilty to terrorism, in exchange for a 27-year sentence without benefits.. To face this new stage, arising from the telematic hearings that began on Monday in the Carabobo Judicial Internmentknown as Tocuyito, the relatives demand that they be allowed to bring food to the detainees, who are malnourished and in vulnerable psychological conditions, due to the poor quality of the food they are served, most of it with worms, some with hair, almost all of it decomposed. .

Since August 26, when they were transferred to the Tocuyito prison, their relatives have only been able to see them once. It was a great impact, so a large group decided to go to the surroundings of the prison every day. The hope, for now, is that they will allow them to bring them food.

Everyone remembers the moments when their loved ones were detained and the beatings they received during the process. The complaints, for the most part, point to the Municipal Police of Valencia and the Bolivarian National Police. The days are not long ago when they had to go through different commands to locate their relative and receive the repetitive response: “they are not here”to later verify that they were there. Also, the pressure to record videos accusing themselves of terrorism crimes, which they claim they did not commit.

Several stories, one case

In Tocuyito, in front of the prison, the stories are different. There is the father who left his job to spend the night in a space provided on the service street in front of the prison. «If my son has work, I also have work. “I’m not leaving here until he gets out.” He has accompanied him from a distance since he was arrested on July 30, first in front of the command and now in front of the prison.

There is also the mother, without a job, who leaves her months-old son with a relative to travel daily to Tocuyito, from Los Guayos, to keep an eye on “a hope, that of freedom” from her husband; or the grandmother who cries sitting in front of the prison, for the grandson who inside is skinny, with a strange color to his skin and nervous.

Their stories came together around the Tocuyito prison since August 26, when they had to begin the search again. The detainees were taken to a place that was unknown to their families. Some took up to two days to confirm that they were in the prison. Others, lucky ones, received a call. A week later the visits began, the only one so far for each detainee and one person per inmate, no more.

I didn’t like having my photos taken

On September 1st the grandmother was able to see her grandson. «They didn’t treat me badly, The only thing I didn’t like was that they took my photo and asked me for my full address. and a phone number. You wait, you pass a hallway, where at the end they sit you down and read you a primer on how you should behave inside. Then you sit down again and they go by one by one so they can take your photo, you go to the search and then you reach a very long hallway with chairs, where you have to wait. “There are hooded guards all along that hallway.”

Again the reading of the card to explain to them that they cannot touch the detainees, that they will speak face to face in an inn, that their hands must be on their legs, under the tables, without moving them, just like theirs. “Imagine, after so much time, not being able to hug my grandson.” Any infraction would lead to a sanction for the detainee and suspension of the visit.

Worms, the greatest condiment

“He was going to cry and I told him to please not cry so I wouldn’t cry and I could talk to him.” The grandmother and her grandson spoke but with a custodian on each side. «Grandma I don’t eat because that is food with worms. “That’s skin ground up with worms, my blood pressure has gone up.”

She knows that the discomfort is from not eating and drinking tank water. Stomach pain is the permanent companion of the young person. «They don’t give him any medication and they don’t ask me for it either. If I come to that door and send you an omeprazole, they won’t give it to you because the doctor inside must order that.”

She learned that they do not hit him but they verbally abuse him. They took him out to the patio only once, for half an hour. «He wants to know what we’re doing out here to get him out.. I told him that we are doing everything possible, but we know that we cannot do anything, because they are not given the right to anything. We have had two three-minute calls, the last one was before the hearing and he told me that they were going to get 27 years if they assumed guilt. If they don’t do it, they will go to trial.”

Have they been pressured to plead guilty?

-I don’t know because I haven’t been able to see it again. I only know that they were given a blank sheet of paper so that they could decide and, if they accepted guilt, they could sign it. My grandson is not guilty, therefore he should not assume. He is a baseball player, a barber and also a baker. His plan was to study Forensic Sciences in college. Let’s go to trial.

The grandmother goes every day to bring food to her son, the father of the detained young man who sleeps every night in a space they lent him, indoors but close to the street, to be close to the boy. She would like that food to be allowed to be given to her grandson. «Since they cannot feed them or give them healthy food, let them let us feed them.even if it is lunch, and bring them a jug of water, even if we don’t see them. Does it cost a lot to do that?

It is the same request of other mothers, wives and daughters who remain every day outside the Tocuyito prison.

«I see my son malnourished. «The food they are giving him has worms, it is bad. “They give them a small arepa, with cheese and worms, at 4:00 in the morning.” This mother also wants to be allowed to bring food to her son, to avoid what has happened to other young people, who faint because they do not eat or have seizures. “A man had a pre-infarction”. Another request he has is that they allow him to see him again, that they restore visits.

Your son’s hearing will be on October 18. She does not know if they are mistreating him to make him blame himself, she only found out that they are offering him to plead guilty in exchange for a 27-year sentence, without benefits. “Then we go to trial.”

Cockroach hairs and legs, other condiments

Again the stories repeat themselves. «Some days they only give them food once. There was one day when they didn’t eat because it was so bad that they had to throw it away. The water is so dirty that it makes them sick.«. The wife of another detainee said that at a meal they found cockroach legs.

Weak, depressed and malnourished. This is how another mother found her son during the only visit he has been allowed in the Tocuyito prison since he was transferred.

It is the same story of another mother, whose son told her that in the meat they served him there were hairs, they don’t know which animal. “Mommy told me, get me out of here because I’m going to die of hunger, we drink water at the end of the day and it’s contaminated.”.

According to their story, sometimes they are given arepas with cheese, other times with mortadella, but almost always with worms. Also ground meat with rice or pasta with grains and generally in poor condition. “At least let us pass some food to them, because they are going to die of hunger.”

People also die from starvation

«My husband weighed 98 kilos and now he weighs 65, he is too skinny and shakes»“my son is emaciated and as if gone”, “my husband was sad, melancholic.” There are several statements, but everything is summed up in a plea: “We family members need urgent help, for our children to receive food and hydration because they are dying. The day a boy dies, who will respond? “People also die from starvation.”

This group of relatives does not know who the judge in the case is. They have only spoken with the defenders who told them that at the hearing they would present four scenarios to the detainees. «But there were only two: assume guilt or go to trial. “We never knew what the other two scenarios were, the defenders do not speak to us with the truth.” “They also do not record the evidence that the relatives provided and that demonstrates the innocence of the inmates.”

In an effort to know more about their children, they had brought binoculars to see them from afar. The Libertador police officers took them away, claiming that they were espionage items. Now they greet each other from a distance, from the prison they wave some shirts and they respond by waving their hands or a towel. It is a way to always stay present.

The municipal police pass by the site and take photos. They persist, waiting for the next hearings, on October 16 and 18, and with faith in the freedom of their relatives.

Baseball players, students, barbers are behind bars, as well as some who were thinking of leaving the country. In the Tocuyito prison there are more than 500, the majority were the breadwinners of their home. His biggest crime was riding a motorcycle or being on the street. Today they face a sentence of 30 years, the maximum for terrorism crimes.

Pressure to plead guilty

This Friday, both the organization Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón, and Provea, reported that those detained for the post-election protests in the prisons of Tocorón, in the state of Aragua, Tocuyito, state of Carabobo, El Rodeo and Las Crisálidas are being threatened so that they declare guilty of the crimes for which they are accused.

Justicia y Perdón recalled, in a statement posted on social networks, that coercion to obtain a confession is a clear violation of their rights. “What was obtained under these circumstances lacks legal validity”.

Marino Alvarado, coordinator of legal enforceability at Provea, warned that coercion, in addition to violating fundamental rights, can be considered state terrorism.

Also in Tocorón

TO The Carabobeño A complaint arrived this Friday from Aragua according to which they are putting a lot of pressure on the detainees to admit the facts of which they are accused. «The pressure includes threats and physical abuse of some detainees. They are being given a blank sheet of paper so that they can put their signature and fingerprint and admit to being the perpetrators of unusual crimes. Furthermore, they must point out that they are not being coerced to do so.