The drama of children imprisoned in Venezuela accused of terrorism: teenager turned 15 years old in a juvenile detention center

The life of Jose David Crespo changed on the afternoon of July 30 when he was arrested along with his father by Venezuelan security forces. Crespo was transferred to the El Manzano detention center, in the state of Lara, where he continues to be held. A week ago he turned 15 years old while in prison and accused of terrorism.

Crespo is part of the 69 minors who remain deprived of liberty in Venezuela after the post-electoral context, according to the NGO Penal Forum. They are accused of multiple crimes, including inciting hatred, rejecting the electoral results against Nicolás Maduro, terrorism and others.

“My son is not a terrorist,” repeats Marbelin Camacaro, Crespo’s mother. Pregnant, she has now had to face the uncertainty of having her husband and son imprisoned.

Camacaro says that they were both on July 30 on February 14 Avenue at around 5:00 pm. The father and the child were going to get money to buy construction materials, since that is what the man does, but the police arbitrarily took them away.

Now the teenager already has an indication that he will go to trial – like his father, detained in another prison – but no date has been set for the procedure.

Venezuelan authorities affirm that those detained are not children and must pay for what they did. “Where were the parents of those children on July 29 and 30? Where were they? They are going to worry about their children now. “They should have worried sooner,” he said Wednesday. Diosdado HairMinister of the Interior, Justice and Peace.

#BREAKING Diosdado Cabello admitted that they have children in prison: “Why didn’t the parents object to their children?” https://t.co/HeU2Mzeyn8 pic.twitter.com/pIlTANXgDJ

— We monitor (@monitoreamos) November 14, 2024

President Nicolás Maduro called on judges to rectify if any detention was improper.

After that, some mothers were summoned to the Prosecutor’s Office in Caracashoping that their children will be released, but it has not happened.

The United Nations affirms that locking a child in prison is never beneficial for the minor. It also establishes that anyone under 18 years of age is a child. However, the fAttorney General of the Republic, in Venezuela, ensures that there are no children deprived of their freedom.

Prosecutor’s Office is committed to reviewing cases

This Friday, the Attorney General, Tarek William Saabannounced the review of the cases of 225 detainees during the July post-election protests.

“Considering that Venezuela is built on superior values ​​such as life, justice and human rights, as well as the due process enshrined in article 49 of the Magna Carta. highlighting the right to defense, the presumption of innocence and trial by natural judges, 225 reviews of measures have been requested from defendants for these events that shocked the country and left the unfortunate number of 28 people dead, nearly 200 injured and 500 public and private assets destroyed,” Saab read at a press conference.

Amnesty International: “Venezuela has gone from bad to worse”

The general secretary of Amnesty International (AI), Agnès Callamard, denounced in an interview with Efe in Lisbon that Venezuela has gone from bad to worse when it comes to human rights and that there has been no progress in the last decade.

Callamard stressed that his organization has “the same diagnosis” about the Latin American country as that recently presented by an independent expert mission, established by the UN Human Rights Council.

According to the mission, Venezuela has suffered one of the most serious human rights crises after the elections of July 28, in which the President Nicolás Maduro in a controversial announcement, since the opposition rejects the result and has denounced fraud.

Callamard stressed that AI has carried out a “thorough” investigation over the last five years and has found “evidence” of crimes against humanity committed in Venezuelan territory, “in particular politically motivated persecution.”

“We have found evidence of extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary detentions, stigmatization of human rights defenders and arrests of people for dissenting from the authorities,” said Callamard, who noted that “in the post-election period repression has escalated” and has seen “a marked deterioration.”

He recalled that nearly 2,000 people who were arrested after the elections are still detained, including human rights activists.

“We know that at least 25 people have died due to the use of lethal force, including minors,” he added. We know that an anti-NGO law has been adopted; that minors who remain in detention have been mistreated.”

This situation has also affected AI:

“Our colleagues at Amnesty International have had to leave, they have had to take many precautions to continue their work,” Callamard said.

Against this backdrop, the organization calls for “the unconditional release of those detained for the peaceful expression of their political or other views.”

“We must ask for an end to arbitrary detentions, we must ask for accountability for everything that has happened…” stressed the general secretary of AI.

Callamard opined that the sanctions regime against Venezuela “works moderately,” because during and after the pandemic, and throughout the war in Ukraine, “Venezuela and Venezuelan oil have become an interesting attraction, even for those who wanted condemn Venezuela.”

“Therefore, this is one of those proactive human rights crises and it seems that there is no end in sight there either,” the activist concluded.