The Mayor of Maracaibo, Rafael Ramírez Colina; former Secretary of Citizen Security of the Maracaibo mayor’s office, Deivi Barroso; and former Secretary of the Office of the Mayor of Maracaibo, Margarita Azensa; have been detained and incommunicado for at least 109 days.
By: Correspondent lapatilla.1eye.us
They are allegedly imprisoned in El Helicoide (Caracas). There have been no further details about these arrests, only that they are supposedly linked to acts of corruption.
Vanessa Linares, Rafael Ramírez’s wife, has since repeatedly asked for the Mayor’s release.
She said her hiusband is innocent and described it as inhumane that in these 109 days he has not been allowed to speak or see his family and has not had the right to a defense attorney.
Linares, along with political leaders and citizens, have carried out religious activities such as masses and rosaries to ask God to intercede in this case.
This Thursday the former first lady led a “prayer chain” in the Plaza de Las Madres, where she asked to pray for the family and the freedom of all political prisoners in Venezuela.
Pedro Guanipa, former Director of the Office of the Mayor of Maracaibo, is the one of the political prisoners from Zulia who has been detained the longest.
Guanipa has been in prison for 114 days and his situation is similar to the other detainees: he has not had any contact with his family or access to a trusted defense.
Diana Berríos, former Director of Human Resources for the Mayor’s Office, has been detained for 106 days and is also imprisoned in Caracas. She is the mother of a 6-year-old girl, and has not had the right to private defense or contact with her relatives, according to political leaders in the region.
Eduardo Labrador, a Deputy of the Legislative Council of Zulia, has been in prison for 90 days since his arrest in the city of Maracaibo.
His family has reported that they have gone to regional and national authorities to find out the reason for the arrest of the leader of “Zulia Humana”, without obtaining any answers.
The Legislative Council of Zulia, the Unitary Platform and the University Council of the University of Zulia, have submitted a request to the authorities dependent on the National Executive to find out the reason for the arrest of the university professor, Eduardo Labrador, but have not obtained answers either.
The unanimous request of the relatives of the political prisoners in the Zulia region is that they be given proof of the life of their relatives, that they be allowed to see them, that due process be followed and that they be allowed to have a trusted lawyer who knows why they are being held in order to begin the legal defense process.
Former congressman José Sánchez and businessman Antonio Buceta, both arrested on September 30th, 2024, also remain in custody and no further information has been obtained on their whereabouts.
Recently, on January 9th, journalist Leandro Palmar, audiovisual technician Salvador Belises and the coordinator of Vente Venezuela in the Manuel Dagnino parish of Maracaibo, Daniel García, were arrested near the Plaza de La República during opposition protests.
It was learned that they were brought before the city courts and charged with instigating hatred and terrorism.