Interview with Juanita Goebertus about the death of Jesús Martínez

Juanita Goebertus Estrada, director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch and human rights expert, mourned the death of the opposition leader Jesus Martinez Medina and described the violation of due process in his case.

“From Human Rights Watch regrets deeply the death of Jesús Manuel Martínez Medina, political leader of Vente Venezuela. Jesus Manuel He was arbitrarily detained on July 29 without an arrest warrant. Throughout his detention he was prevented from seeing his family, from having access to a trusted lawyer and in a very serious way he was prevented from having medical treatment, despite being a diabetes patient and having heart problems,” he said. Goebertus Estrada.

“That lack of access to medical treatment is what surely resulted in his recent death. “This case is part of a broader pattern of repression that had been occurring against political opponents before the July 28 elections, but that undoubtedly worsened after the electoral fraud committed by the government of Nicolás Maduro,” he highlighted.

In that sense, the political scientist explained that they have documented 23 deaths of civilians, protesters and even passers-by who went out to protest against the results announced by the National Electoral Council.

“They encountered direct repression. In many cases we were able to document the participation of members of agents of the Venezuelan State or the so-called collectives. It is these groups of armed civilians that are colluding with the Armed Forces in Venezuela”, he noted.

“We have also documented several other cases historically of deaths in custody due to lack of medical care.ill-treatment and torture in detention centers, and this adds to this broader panorama that, since the fact-finding mission created by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, has been described as the Commission on Crimes of against humanity under the government of Nicolás Maduro,” he added.