Jesús Martínez, an opponent imprisoned in Venezuela, dies: “He died in your hands,” they tell Maduro

Jesús Martínez, 36, died in a hospital in Barcelona, ​​Anzoátegui state, in Venezuela, due to a heart problem associated with complications from type II diabetes. The day before, his family had reported the misdiagnosis of a leg with necrosis that had to be amputated.

>>> You may also be interested in: Maduro regime questions Marco Rubio’s appointment in the Trump Government and makes a bet

He was a member of the Vente party Venezuelaby opposition leader María Corina Machado, who denounces Maduro’s proclamation as fraud and assures that his candidate Edmundo González Urrutia won the July 28 elections.

“One more crime by Maduro and his regime,” Machado wrote on the X network, from hiding. “He died in their hands, he died because of the inhumane conditions in which he was kidnapped.”. They took Jesus away for exercising his right and civic duty,” he added.

When had Jesús Martínez been detained by the Nicolás Maduro regime?

Martínez was arrested on July 29, a few hours after Maduro’s questioned proclamation, which the opposition and several countries around the world ignored and sparked strongly repressed protests.

He was part of the team of witnesses that the opposition put together to monitor the votes and his arrest was considered political.

He was arrested “without a search warrant and without any reason,” said Machado. “They transferred him to inhumane cells in Anzoátegui, he was severely mistreated and was in such precarious hygienic conditions that he had necrosis in both legs.”

“A huge number”

The post-election protests also left 28 dead and more than 200 injured, according to Attorney General Tarek William Saab, which initially spoke of more than 2,400 detainees, including minors.

Saab, accused of serving Chavismo, told AFP this week that “many have been released” although without specifying figures. The president indicated shortly before that “if there is any case to rectify and review, (I also ask) that there be justice.”

The NGO Penal Forum – which keeps a record of detainees for political reasons – has counted 1,979 detainees.

It is “an enormous number,” said Alfredo Romero, president of the NGO Foro Penal that keeps track of detainees for political reasons. “We are talking about the highest number of political prisoners in the 21st century, the highest number of political prisoners in the entire American continent.”

The majority of prisoners in the post-election crisis They are in maximum security prisons Tocorón (Aragua) and Tocuyito (Carabobo).

Before July 28, the date of the presidential elections, Foro Penal had a registration of 305 political prisoners.

Since 2014 at least a dozen “political prisoners” have died in the custody of the State, according to activists.

“Hands on the heart”

Among the arrests confirmed by Foro Penal since July 29, the day protests broke out for Maduro’s re-election, There are 69 adolescents and 10 people with some type of disability.

Gonzalo Himiob, vice president of Foro Penal, highlighted that 10 of the detainees have disabilities, like a 17-year-old on the autism spectrum and a 27-year-old who is deaf, who does not know how to read, write or communicate through sign language.

Saab has said that the arrested teenagers were in juvenile prisons and “their human rights were taken care of.” “In Venezuela children are not detained, that is a lie,” he insisted.

A hundred relatives of detainees gathered this Thursday in front of the prosecutor’s office to ask Saab for his freedom. “Let them put their hands on their hearts and see the case, they are innocent boys,” Jenny Barrios, whose 22-year-old son was detained in the mechanical workshop where he worked in Maracaibo (west of Zulia state), told AFP.

Added to the increase in arrests is the violation of the presumption of innocencethe refusal to allow private defense and the lack of access to detainees, Romero said. “A public defender has been imposed on them.”

“The most characteristic thing is the number of people who “They became political prisoners, we are talking about six times the number of political prisoners,” detailed the human rights defender.

>>> You can also read: Trump nominates Marco Rubio as US Secretary of State: he will be the first Latino in the position