After eight days of being detained and “forcibly disappeared” (Not only a human rights violation but crime against humanity), Carlos Correa, Director of the non-governmental organization “Espacio Público”, the human rights defender and journalist, was released early this past Thursday, January 16th.
lapatilla.com
Correa was detained on January 7th by “hooded officials” and remained detained in the “El Helicoide” detention center in Caracas an infamous torture center, in a condition of forced disappearance, without the possibility of communicating with his wife or family, despite public demands in this regard and family and friends repeatedly asking if he was there, as NGO Espacio Público indicated in a statement published this Thursday.
For Ali Daniels, a lawyer and co-director of NGO “Acceso a la Justicia” (Access to Justice), the most serious aspect of Correa’s case is the fact that he had been missing for a week without any authority indicating where he was or even acknowledging he had been detained.
“As is known, Carlos’s wife (Mabel Calderín) said that an official from the Public Ministry had (unofficially) told them that he had been charged, but (he) never indicated the place of his detention so that people could know. For the purposes of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons, even if the authorities state that a person is detained, if they do not indicate the place where he is retained and give access to it (the prisoner) to his lawyer and his family, that person continues to be missing,” explained Daniels.
The co-director of Access to Justice considered that with Correa’s detention, the Government intends to send a message not only to human rights defenders, but also to the media and journalists to the effect that self-censorship must be intensified.
“The aim is to reinforce this climate in which they want to surround Venezuelan society, so that we are all looking over our shoulders to see who will be next, and in this way, generate self-censorship, more than there already is, and prevent demonstrations of solidarity with the detainees. Something that in the particular case of Carlos, as we saw, they did not achieve. The Venezuelan human rights movements and international personalities expressed their solidarity with the case of Carlos,” he said.
Stigmatization of NGOs
The lawyer pointed out that with the legal instruments available to the Government, including the Law of Supervision, Regularization, Action and Financing of Non-Governmental Organizations and Non-Profit Social Organizations, also called the “anti-society law” by some activists, all human rights organizations are currently in a situation of “stigmatization.”
“As has been seen in official media, there is a constant stigmatization of organizations and, despite this, they have maintained their profile of denunciation, but obviously it will be increasingly difficult because after the approval of the anti-society law, mechanisms are established that aim to make them illegal,” said Daniels.
According to the co-director of NGO Access to Justice, with this action the national government seeks to imitate the script devised and enacted by the government of Nicaragua, where more than 3,000 non-governmental organizations were made illegal in the first year of application of the Nicaraguan regulations against NGOs.
“Unfortunately, this is the path that the Venezuelan government is taking, thus affecting millions of Venezuelans who benefit from the activity of these organizations,” he remarked.
Arrests
Daniels pointed out that within the regulatory framework, the “Organic Law Liberator Simon Bolivar against the Imperialist Blockade and in Defense of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” also stands out.
He explained that this instrument, in addition to penalizing those who support sanctions against the Government, also has an article where it is considered that all those who question the legitimacy of the authorities in Venezuela are committing a crime.
“Anyone who questions the official results of July 28th can be subject to persecution. In addition, in the particular case of the ‘Simon Bolivar Law’, a criminal conviction is not even required for them, but rather a national registry is established where a person can be included on a simple suspicion, without a trial, and their assets can be frozen and practically brought to civil death. So, as you can see, it is not an isolated action, but rather it is a whole siege that is closing in on Venezuelan society and that is why what happened in the case of Carlos (Correa) is so praiseworthy, where so many Venezuelans expressed solidarity asking for his freedom,” explained Ali Daniels.
He said that the arrests in the post-election context reveal the authorities’ intentions to “silence Venezuelan society.”
According to figures from the Venezuelan Penal Forum, from January 1st to 12th, 83 political detaintions were recorded, with January 7th and 9th being the days with the highest number of arrests (17 and 46, respectively).
These arrests occurred in the context of Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration on January 10th.
“We do not know the details of each of these arrests, so we cannot indicate what particular profile is being sought. But, in any case, this confirms that the process that the colleagues from the Penal Forum have appropriately described as ‘revolving doors’ continues to be used and, therefore, although there have indeed been releases of people detained in the post-election events, the number of detainees remains very high,” said Daniels.
As of January 17th, 2025, the Penal Forum counts a total of 1,687 political prisoners in Venezuela.
Overcoming fear
Daniels asserted that the rule of law is not respected in the country, even if the government says otherwise.
He said that fear has become a way of life for a human rights defender in Venezuela, but stated that “in the face of the reality of fear, inaction is not an option.”