Seven minors detained after protests put on trial

In a preliminary telematic hearing, Judge Keidimar Ramos Castillo, head of Court 2 with jurisdiction in terrorism, put seven minors, aged between 15 and 17, on trial. Are accused of terrorism, incitement to hatred, obstruction of public roads and resistance to authority during the protests that arose in the country as a result of the election results.

This is the second group of young people, under 18 years old, which is put on trial in Carabobo. The first, which involved two minors, received the court decision last Friday.

The preliminary hearing began around 2:00 p.m. this Wednesday. The relatives were hopeful that, after 62 days and after the evidence they submitted to the public defender’s office, including study and sports records and witness ID cards, they would be able to leave the Carabobo Courthouse, in Valencia, with their children.

Seven minors put on trial

This did not happen. The seven received an offer from the judge: They plead guilty and They will only pay a sentence of 6 years and 8 months, without procedural benefits. Otherwise, they would go to trial with the risk of having to serve the 10 years that the prosecution requested for minors. None accepted, so they were put on trial, without any possibility of benefits.

These seven young people, among whom is a 16-year-old girl, have several things in common. They were arrested at different times between July 29 and 30 and are being held in police commands in Valencia and Libertador. The public defender is Kelly Pérez and they were all tortured in the police centers to which they were sent after their arrest, according to statements from their relatives.

All They recorded a video in which they admitted that they had been paid $30 to go out on the streets to protest. They did it after several days of receiving blows, so many that some lost teeth. Another has burned nipples, because they put electricity on him. None of the forensic examinations demanded by relatives were carried out.

This Wednesday, each of them participated in the telematic preliminary hearing, headed by Judge Keidimar Ramos Castillo. First the prosecutor intervened to present the crimes for which they should be charged and request a sentence, after the trial, of 10 years. Some children pleaded for their freedom, but the judge did not listen to them.

A public defender’s office that does not defend

Then it was the turn of the public defender, Kelly Pérez, whose interventions did not last two minutes. The relatives believe they heard her when she whispered the request to review precautionary measures. This official did not submit to the court all the documents that each parent gave her to prove the innocence of their children. and their status as students or athletes, as the judge informed them during the hearing. “The defense did not promote anything,” Ramos said.

Subsequently, the judge denied the defender’s request and announced the move to trial. The parents’ frustration was present; not having the right to defense increases their helplessness.

Today they regret not having reported all the violations of due process that their children face. The first, a preliminary hearing held 62 days after the arrest and not 10, as established by law. They did it because they thought that, because they were minors, there would be less cruelty. The reality today is different.

Two of these minors have expressed suicidal intentions. They do not understand why they are experiencing this situation and their tolerance levels are exceeding their own limits.

Detained minor parents have not seen the files

Parents have never been able to see their children’s records. «We have requested the file countless times and they always tell us that it cannot be done because it is illegal. Why is it illegal if they are minors and we are part of the process?

The irregularity is so great that some ID numbers in the police report were misspelled. «Where is the right to be able to defend ourselves, with private lawyers. “We have not even been able to see what crimes they are charging our children with.”

My son was arrested on a field where he was playing baseball, he was 15 years old, he turned 16 in August and I couldn’t even hug him. “The neighbors recorded the moment of the arrest and you can see when they have him on the floor kicking him, then they pick him up and he runs away, then the policeman says kill him, kill the one in the cap and my son shouts I’m a minor, I’m a minor.”

And here I am, the story continues. Having that small hope that they would give him a precautionary measure because my son has family support, he passed into his fifth year of high school, he is a baseball prospect, this year the big teams came to see him. We have all the mitigating circumstances to grant them a precautionary measure that would allow them to continue with their studies and their life.because they are innocent, they have not done anything.

This mother spent the week buying school supplies because she was convinced that she would be granted the precautionary measure and would be able to start her fifth year of high school. «I was hoping that they would give it to me to take to school. He is depressed, every time he sees me he says to me: Mom, why am I here if I haven’t done anything? He is a child, he is so depressed that he doesn’t even want to bathe, I bring him food and he gives it away because he doesn’t want to eat,” she says through tears.

She goes to the command three times a day to bring food, walking an hour and a half from her house to the detention center. “I can’t work, I don’t eat, I don’t sleep, because I have no life, because my daughter and I are in prison, just like my son.”

Athletes and musicians

Another of the minors belongs to the Table Tennis Association. He was selected to represent Carabobo in the youth games. His mother submitted to the public defender all the documents that certified these events, which now do not appear, as confirmed by the judge in the telematic hearing.

Another of the young people is 16 years old and is a musician, he composes songs. He was arrested with a friend in Prebo, walking home after rehearsing a new composition. At the hearing it was said that he had been detained in front of Fort Paramacay. “That’s false, his mother said.” According to the proceedings, these minors were detained by officials of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (Dgcim), but their mother assures that those who arrested them were Carabobo police officers.

Another dramatic case is that of the 16-year-old girl detained on the night of July 29 in Naguanagua. He had gone to eat hot dogs with three other friends when they were seen by hooded men who took them to Fort Paramacay. A man dressed in a military uniform told her that if she slept with him he would give her freedom. When he failed to achieve his goal, he seized the young woman’s phone, who was beaten and forced to record a video accusing María Corina Machado’s sister. “My daughter had false eyelashes and they ripped them off”

With her ribs and arms bruised, they put her in a room full of stones, along with other detainees. He lasted three days without eating or drinking water. Today she is with adult women imprisoned for different crimes, who have beaten her. “She once tried to commit suicide and a few days ago she told me that she is tired of being there, that she doesn’t want to continue like this.”

Her mother also enrolled her in school, with the hope of freedom that she had until this Wednesday.

The hearings will continue this week. If everything continues as before, the fate of the detained teenagers, in the hands of Judge Keidimar Ramos Castillo and defenders such as Kelly Pérez, does not give rise to hope.

The NGO Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón expressed solidarity with these families and condemned the indolence towards these young people, who have been deprived of their freedom for two months.

«We urge the authorities of the justice system to review these cases, enforcing guarantees of due process and respect for their human rights. “It is absolutely condemnable that young people who have not committed any crime are criminalized, causing serious harm to their present and future.”