Spain calls for "immediate" release of journalists arrested by Maduro regime

The Spanish government today rejected "vigorously" the detention in Caracas of four members of a team of the Agency EFE by members of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin).

In a statement The Government badures that "since he became aware of the arrest, through the Embbady of Caracas, all necessary measures are taken to obtain his release as soon as possible ".

The arrested are the Spanish journalist Gonzalo Domínguez Loeda, the Colombian journalist Mauren Barriga Vargas and the Colombian photographer Leonardo Muñoz, as well as the Venezuelan pilot José Salas.

The three journalists are part of a team that traveled from Bogota to cover the crisis in Venezuela.

In the statement, the Spanish government demands "again" Venezuelan authorities "Respect for the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, of which freedom of the press is a central element".

According to Efe journalists in Caracas, five members of the Bolivian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) presented thisOche at the hotel where special envoys stay and have arrested the Spanish Gonzalo Domínguez Loeda and the Colombian Maurén Barriga Vargas.

Sebin agents, heavily armed, They ordered Dominguez and Barriga to accompany them and took them to interrogate them.

The director of Efe in Caracas, Nélida Fernández, followed by a lawyer in Domínguez and Barriga to try to clarify the situation before the Venezuelan authorities and obtain his release as soon as possible.

However, he stressed that the lawyers did not let them enter the headquarters of the intelligence service (Sebin) in Caracas, better known as El Helicoide, where they were taken

The contact with the photographer Leonardo Muñoz and the driver who accompanied him, Venezuelan Jose Salas, who was scheduled to cover demonstrations against Nicolás Maduro's regime in the Caracas district of Petare, was lost on Wednesday morning.

Sure Muñoz, Venezuelan agents said that they had "interrogated" him.

The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has activated all mechanisms to try to guarantee the release of journalists, while Migración Colombia has warned all border checkpoints, land and air, to be waiting in case of expulsion.