Relatives of detained protesters demand their freedom

Shouting “neither terrorists nor criminals, our boys are innocent!”, about fifty relatives of the arrested in protests against the questioned re-election of Nicolás Maduro This Wednesday he demanded his freedom in front of the Tocuyito maximum security prison in Carabobo (center-north).

«We are all mothers here – from various states of the country – (…) Our children are not thieves, they are not murderers, they are not thugs, they are not terrorists.«Said Mireya González, 53, spokesperson for the group wearing T-shirts with the faces of the detainees.

“All we ask for and the only thing we ask for our children is freedom,” said González, mother of Sandro Rodríguez, 25, arrested two months ago in Barquisimeto (west) and transferred to the maximum security prison located about 200 kilometers away.

Tocuyito along with Tocorón in Aragua are the two prisons enabled by the government to confine protestersaccused of “terrorism”, after the post-election protests that left more than 2,400 arrested and 27 dead.

The conditions of detention of protesters

González, like many mothers, has had to move her bedroom to a place near the prison to try to obtain information about her son amid the difficulties due to distance and restrictions from the authorities, which in many cases have only allowed one visit.

Detention conditions are “inhumane”relatives assured, although the protesters are not held with the “normal” prison population.

In Tocuyito there are “441 detainees (as part of the demonstrations) and 221 have some (medical) pathology.” They are not being attended to. Once they told one of them: when they are dying we will take care of them,” González said.

«There is no water. They give them very little food and very bad food. At first there were worms (…) This morning breakfast was rotten chicken that they couldn’t eat,” reported another mother on condition of anonymity for her safety. Others claim that there have been “numerous suicide attempts.”

«I have a request to make to our president Nicolás Maduro, who declared Merry Christmas in Venezuela (he brought forward Christmas). “Let these innocent boys be freed,” insisted Yaisleth Petit, whose husband Carlos Caripa is imprisoned.

Maduro was proclaimed re-elected for a third consecutive term by the National Electoral Council, but without until now showing the detailed scrutiny of the election, as established by law.

The opposition, however, claims the victory of its candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, exiled in Spain.