Chancellor and De Grazia remain incommunicado

More than 20 days have passed since the arrest of the former mayor of the Sifontes municipality, in the state of Bolívar, Carlos Chancellor, 64 years old, and his family has not yet been able to see him, much less speak to him.

“Until now they have not let me see him, They only allow food and medicine to pass through on Tuesdays. They just say that we have to wait 45 days and we will be able to see him,” explained one of Chancellor’s sons to La Patilla.

The political leader is being held in El Helicoide. To date, The reasons for his arrest are unknown.

During the electoral campaign for the presidential elections on July 28, Chancellor openly supported María Corina Machado and Edmundo González.

Who is Carlos Chancellor?

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The leader of La Causa R was Mayor of Sifontes for four terms. The first was from 1995 to 2000, then from 2000 to 2004. The third was from 2008 to 2013 and the last from 2013 to 2017, during which he was also a councillor.

He spent more than five years in prison, after protesting against the mining policies of the Hugo Chávez government.

The manager is also the father of Jhon Chancellor, a player for the Vinotinto national team, who was recently called up to play against Bolivia and Uruguay (the latter will be in Venezuela) and is currently signed by Club Deportivo Universidad Católica in Ecuador.

Américo De Grazia, missing

The case of Américo De Grazia is not very different from that of Chancellor. After his arrest on August 8, remains at the headquarters of El Helicoide. “To this day we still have no proof of life, without knowing what condition he is in, without even knowing if he is alive“, assured his daughter, Maria Andreína De Grazia, to the digital medium.

He said that the family lives in uncertainty and concern because they have not received any official communication confirming that the opposition leader is being held in El Helicoide.

“The only thing we have had so far is the same verbal confirmation from the official who attended to my family at El Helicoide when he said: ‘Américo De Grazia is here.’ But until today, 20 days later, we are still in the same uncertainty and concern. My family in Caracas has gone to El Helicoide in person every visiting day, which is normally Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. If they don’t cancel it because, for example, on Saturday they saw the protests, and they cancelled the visits, they didn’t let anyone in,” he added.

During those “visits” They only leave him food, clothing and medicine, which the official on guard receives.a, but they are not sure that it will reach the hands of the political leader.

He complained that they do not know the reasons for his arrest, which has prevented them from starting a defense case with their trusted lawyers. “We have not been able to start a defense case with them, a legal defense case, because we do not even know what we are defending him against. We have, therefore, no information about what charges they are giving him and no confirmation that he is there.”

For them, De Grazia is missing. “We don’t know where the car is, where he was, we don’t know in what condition they took him, who took him, in other words, nothing. The only certainty, so to speak, is the verbal confirmation that the official said that Américo De Grazia is here in El Helicoide, but we have nothing else.”

Who is Americo De Grazia?

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De Grazia is originally from Upata, in the south of Bolívar state. He was a member of the political party La Causa R and was mayor of the Piar Municipality and a deputy to the National Assembly for the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD).

In the regional and municipal elections of November 21, 2021, he was the candidate for Governor of Bolívar state for the Ecological Movement of Venezuela (MOVEV).

The number of detainees in Venezuela is growing

The NGO Foro Penal reported last Friday that Venezuela has 1,674 political prisonersThis is the highest figure in the country’s history during the 21st century.

In a post made on their social networks, they indicated some characteristics of the people they have arrested for showing opposition to the government of Nicolas Maduro.

According to the details released, 1,458 prisoners are men and 216 are women. In addition, there are 1,519 civilians in the group and 155 military personnel. The Penal Forum said that 1,567 are adults and 107 are adolescents.

So far, 1,377 have been imprisoned and 149 have already received a sentence, but there are 1,525 who do not have a final sentence against them.