Maracaibo says that Rafael Ramírez was detained without justification

The Mayor’s Office of Maracaibo, capital of the Venezuelan state of Zulia, denounced this Wednesday that the arrest of its owner, the opposition Rafael Ramírez Colina, was carried out “without any justification or explanation”, for which it demanded his “immediate” release.

The mayor’s office, which also confirmed the arrest this Tuesday of “other officials,” called for “respect for the institutions” and “the physical spaces of municipal public powers,” as well as the “protection of each of the more than 8,000 public servants in the city.

In a statement, he clarified that he continues with “the daily work to bring solutions to each of the 18 parishes, complying with the established planning and the provision of municipal public services.”

Likewise, he assured that Ramírez Colina, in office since 2021, has made a “titanic effort to recover” the capital of this border region with Colombia, with “transparency and accountability.”

According to sources from the mayor’s office, the general director of citizen security of Maracaibo, David Barroso, and two members of Ramírez Colina’s security team were also arrested.

This Wednesday, the opposition party Primero Justicia (PJ) – of which the mayor is a member – demanded his “immediate” release and that of “the other detained officials, as well as the cessation of political persecution.”

The formation indicated that the mayor was transferred to the headquarters of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin), while saying it did not know details about his condition and the reasons for which he was arrested.

Opposition leader María Corina Machado assured that the government unleashed a “wave of terror” in the country with the arrest of the mayor of Maracaibo and three members of his team, as well as a regional coordinator of the anti-Chavista party, all arrested on Tuesday .

Ramírez Colina is one of the 154 politicians who according to Machado’s party (Vente Venezuela) are imprisoned in the country, the majority after being arrested in the weeks before and after the July 28 elections.

In these last elections, the mayor supported the candidacy of opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia and joined the “legitimate citizen request” that the electoral body “publish the disaggregated results”.