Relatives of those detained during protests in Venezuela call for their release

(1 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Caracas, Venezuela - 01 August 2024
1. Various of woman who's brother was detained in recent days during opposition protests, crying while speaking on phone outside of a detention center in Caracas
2. Various of woman whose 20-year-old son was detained during protests crying
3. Various of police truck passing through
4. Ismenia Blanco outside the detention center
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ismenia Blanco, mother of detainee:
“They say this is a free country but look what is happening with all the youths that cannot defend their rights. They accused them of something they are not. And they take them to Yare prison as if they were common felons.”
6. Various of detention center, official showing a list of detainees that were transferred to another prison
7. Women looking at the list of detainees
8. Stefania Migliorini, lawyer of Foro Penal NGO, speaking to the press
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Stefania Migliorini, lawyer:
“To this moment, we have registered in our complaints centre (for reports of detentions) 672 verified arrests nationally as of 9 a.m. today.”
10. Various of Francesca Aponte writing a note to her brother who is detained at the Boleita National Police detention center. In the background is their mother, Lili Martinez
11. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Lili Martinez, mother of detainee:
"I am devastated because with everything they are saying that they are going to apply, as a mother I am the one who suffers. I am asking God to soften their hearts and release all those who need to get out of there."
12. People entering detention center to bring food and personal things to detainees
13. Woman speaking on phone
14. Women hugging
STORYLINE:
At least 672 people have been detained in Venezuela since the country fell into turmoil after Sunday’s disputed election results, according to Venezuela-based human rights organization Foro Penal.
The ruling party-loyal National Electoral Council proclaimed President Nicolás Maduro the winner over opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, and within hours, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Caracas and other cities.
The protests, which continued into Tuesday, turned violent at times, and law enforcement responded with tear gas and rubber pellets.
Foro Penal said 11 people, including two minors, were killed in election-related unrest.
Venezuela’s law enforcement responded heavily to the protests with widespread arrests, according to a Foro Penal lawyer, Stefania Migliorini.
“To this moment, we have registered in our complaints centre (for reports of detentions) 672 verified arrests nationally as of 9 a.m. today,” she said.
On Thursday, dozens of relatives of detainees gathered outside Boleita Detention Center in Caracas seeking further information, with some able to bring in food, clothes, and other personal items.
After protests erupted, Maduro doubled down on the response and vowed to detain opposition leaders.
Detainees are being processed with terrorism charges.
Ismenia Blanco says her son was arrested in San Agustin, one of the most impoverished neighborhoods of Caracas on Tuesday.
She has been outside the Boleita Detention Center since Wednesday.
“They say this is a free country but look what is happening with all the youths that cannot defend their rights because they accused them of something they are not”, Blanco said.
Some of the detainees were taken to Yare prison, one of the biggest prisons in the country, just outside Caracas.
AP Video shot by Juan Arraez
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[@josesojo8153]

Sería interesante que pasen videos de los familiares de los fallecidos que fueron asesinados por al menos un número similar de detenidos. 25 fallecidos víctimas de la violencia generados en focos violentos en los que quemaron buses, estaciones del metro, módulos policiales, agresión a ciudadanos sin una razón especifica aparente, más de 90 funcionarios policiales heridos, dos Guardias Nacionales asesinados. Ojalá AP informe con veracidad la evolución de los hechos.

[@arcie3716]

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