Repudiation and “stigmatization” complaints against a Chavist mayor for marking the homes of Venezuelans infected with the coronavirus

There are growing reports of persecution by the Nicolás Maduro dictatorship in connection with the coronavirus pandemic. This Wednesday, a video posted by Adrián Duque, chavist mayor of the Venezuelan municipality of Sucre, in the central state of Yaracuy, provoked a strong repudiation, which was striking the homes of people infected with covid-19 in their municipality with a red circle.

After the images were broadcast, the Venezuelan NGO Fundaredes denounced that this action represents a “stigmatization” of those who suffer from the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

In the video, posted on social networks, you can see Duque, mayor of the municipality, showing a house in which there is a red circle with the phrase “family in preventive quarantine, no visitors are accepted”.

The Chavist official warns, while showing the poster surrounded by police officers, that he will do it with all the houses where they are infected with covid-19. “We are protecting our people (…) It indicates that there is a case of Covid or a suspected case of Covid, so people are alert.”

“Alert, to take care of our health, conscience is the best vaccine for everyone”adds the alderman.

Before the video is published, Fundaredes assured on Twitter that “this type of action is discriminatory, the stigmatization of covid-19 patients is a violation of their rights”.

The measure triggered criticism from various doctors and the representative of a trade union organization explained to the agency EFE that the decision is “Retrograde, fascist” and discriminatory, while remembering that it looks like the ones taken centuries ago when “someone had died of the plague.”

On the side of the government of Juan Guaidó, he Humberto Prado, Presidential Commissioner for Human Rights and Attention to Victims: “Today we see the mayor of the municipality of Sucre, in the state of Yaracuy, Adrián Duque, posting posters on people’s homes. likely to suffer from covid-19, when what should be is to take vaccines to the citizens of this municipality. But we see how it violates the right to privacy and the right not to be discriminated against. On top of that, threaten people who remove posters to eliminate the advantage of food bags, the so-called Clap bags.

“We must appeal to international organizations, the office of the High Commissioner and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to document this type of attitude and this type of behavior that the officials who represent the regime in the different entities of the country, ”he added.

For its part, Tamara suju, a Venezuelan human rights lawyer, said “he must be denounced”, and added: “I also wish him good health so that he does not have to mark himself.”

Speaking to a local radio station, Duque said drastic measures were needed to deal with a second wave of coronavirus, and He warned that benefits, including the distribution of food and cooking gas, could be reduced if people do not comply with quarantine orders.

The mayor of Chavista has threatened to impose a fine of $ 9 on those who disobey the quarantine, the minimum wage for several months in hyperinflationary Venezuela.

Faced with the wave of criticism over the measures, Duque told local press that if someone considers the measures to be unconstitutional, they can challenge them in court, but that the rules were binding until there was a possible conviction.

Venezuela is currently going through a second wave of covid-19, the worst to date, after the Brazilian variant of the coronavirus arrived in the country.

As a result, the Caribbean country suffered the worst of the pandemic last week with 9,468 new infections and 97 deaths, according to data provided by the Chavista regime. However, the opposition and the international community question the transparency of the indices published by the dictatorship.

In its annual report on human rights in the world, Amnesty International (AI) indicated that the Maduro dictatorship has intensified persecution against the opposition and the Venezuelan population since the start of the pandemic. “Mandatory quarantine in state custody was an example of the repressive response to COVID-19”, notes the report.

With information from EFE and Reuters

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