Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro labeled them as terrorists on national television. They were plucked from pharmacies, apartment buildings and other locations, and thrown in prison for months. Many then endured severe beatings, food deprivation and other forms of torture. Virtually all developed stomach infections and lost weight. Three died.
More than 2,200 people were detained after Venezuela’s presidential election in July last year, when civil unrest broke out over Maduro’s claim to victory. With dissent firmly squelched, the government has slowly released nearly 1,900 of the mostly poor, politically unaffiliated 20-somethings.
Tearful reunions with family, some as recently as Friday last week. have brought them an immense sense of relief, but it vanishes with the realization that they are not truly free, neither physically nor mentally.
Photo: AP
Now at home, the former detainees, particularly those who participated in post-election rallies, must also cope with the disappointment that the votes they defended on the streets did not push Maduro out of office or produce the change they hoped for.
“You go home, see your loved ones and get drunk on happiness, but 24 to 48 hours later, reality hits you,” a man who was detained for more than five months said. “What is the reality? My fundamental rights were violated, and I am still at the mercy of the same government.”
The man and relatives of other former detainees told AP how the government’s repressive apparatus wrecked their lives after the July 28 election. Most spoke under the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the government, or its network of ruling-party loyalists who through physical force and control of state subsidies quash dissent.
Former detainees suffer insomnia, cannot be among crowds and tremble at the sight of a police officer. They have heart conditions not typical of young adults. They are worse off financially than before the election and cannot find work partly because their IDs were seized during their arrests.
They feel doubly insulted having to tap into the government’s precarious health, food and cash programs, but some see no other alternatives.
The families of the former detainees are indebted to loan sharks and acquaintances after spending hundreds of dollars in transportation, as well as meals, medicines, toiletries and other items not provided by the corrections system. Some mothers sob at night. Others silently carry the guilt that comes from having their children home again while other families are still making prison visits.
“The intimidation to which we are being subjected — the psychological damage that they are causing us — is the worst thing that can be done to a population … with a desire for freedom,” the mother of a former detainee said. “That is terrorism.”
Millions of Venezuelans expressed their desire for a change in government in the July election but electoral authorities loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner hours after polls closed without providing detailed vote counts, unlike in previous elections.
Meanwhile, the main opposition coalition collected tally sheets from 85 percent of electronic voting machines showing that its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, won by a more than a two-to-one margin.
The dispute over the results sparked nationwide protests. The government responded with force, arresting more than 2,200 people, even if they had not participated in the demonstrations, and encouraging Venezuelans to report anyone they suspected of being a ruling-party adversary. More than 20 people were killed during the unrest.
Throughout Maduro’s presidency, state security forces have carried out mass arrests, but never like last year’s in terms of time span or primary demographic.
Previous protests were led primarily by young, college-educated, middle and upper-class Venezuelans of European descent who openly embraced the country’s political opposition. However, at the end of July, those on the streets were adolescents and young adults whose lives have been marked by poverty and letdowns from Maduro’s government.
“They were the children and grandchildren of the people who voted for Hugo Chavez,” said Oscar Murillo, head of the Venezuelan human rights group Provea, referring to Maduro’s predecessor. “They did not identify with the opposition. They came out in rejection of the poor management of the election results.”
However, in prison, part of the detainees were forced to wear uniforms in a shade of blue associated in Venezuela to an opposition party.
As time wore on inside overcrowded and sweltering cells, a few attempted suicide, some leaned into prayer and many were convinced they would all be freed by Jan. 11, the day after the presidential term, by law, begins in Venezuela. Those fixated on that deadline were banking on Gonzalez fulfilling his promise to return from exile and be sworn in as president.
Not only did Gonzalez not return, his son-in-law was also detained and remains in custody.
Since being released, former detainees and their loved ones now pray for health, work and a new president. However, they have sworn off politics.
“They instilled fear in political participation, which does a huge amount of damage to any society that wants progress and development in any country,” the former detainee said.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
Filipino farmers like Romeo Wagayan have been left with little choice but to let their vegetables rot in the field rather than sell them at a loss, as rising oil prices linked to the Iran war drive up the cost of harvesting, labor and transport. “There’s nothing we can do,” said Wagayan, a 57-year old vegetable farmer in the northern Philippine province of Benguet. “If we harvest it, our losses only increase because of labor, transportation and packing costs. We don’t earn anything from it. That’s why we decided not to harvest at all,” he said. Soaring costs caused by the Middle East
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
RSS