Relatives of post-election detainees suffer in Tocuyito

Relatives of those arrested for the post-election protests that began on July 29 are experiencing hardships upon arriving at the Carabobo Penitentiary Complexknown as Tocuyito prison, to try to communicate with the prisoners. Some sleep in the vehicles because they have no way to pay for a room in a hotel or inn.

Citizens travel from states such as Trujillo, Mérida, Lara and Vargas.

“We come from Trujillo. We have an elderly relative here in the Tocuyito prison. He was arrested without being involved in any protest. He was walking to a store to buy meat and they arrested him,” a relative of a detainee told the NGO Una Ventana a la Libertad.

Relatives fear that the septuagenarian’s health will deteriorate because he suffers from respiratory failure and other pathologies. “He has to use an inhaler and often gets a fever,” she added.

They also reported that in the nine days since they arrived in the Libertador municipality, Carabobo state, they have not been able to see the detainee and they also do not know anything about his health status.

“This is painful for us. Seeing what is happening to him is unfair because he should not be in prison,” said a cousin of the elderly man, who is in the family group from Trujillo, in the west of the country.

There is hope of seeing him, starting on September 19, because that is the date on which the 45 days stipulated by law are up, explains the septuagenarian’s cousin.

Relatives detained without being part of the post-election protests

Another family group that was also in the vicinity of the Tocuyito prison said that their relative, a 34-year-old man, was detained in Puerto Cabello, on the Carabobo coast, while he was walking with his wife and 7-year-old daughter.

On Tuesday, July 30, they were intercepted by police officers and took him away.

“We don’t know anything about him either. I’m his mother-in-law and it’s been fatal for us. They still don’t authorize family visits to those detained in the prison, but we’re waiting for them to do so,” the relative told A Window to Freedom.

Likewise, a citizen named Soteldo reported that the police authorities asked him for videos that could prove his son-in-law’s innocence.

“Where are we going to get a video if the ones who should have it are the police when they arrested him,” he said.

Soteldo said that a commission intercepted his son-in-law and took him to prison, without having anything to do with the protests of that day. That was in Barquisimeto, Lara state.

“This has not only changed my family member’s life, but all of ours. We don’t deserve to be living this nightmare, it’s not fair,” said a woman from Merida, who could not go into further details due to her emotional state.