Several Venezuelan and international NGOs demand the freedom of the activist who denounced the border conflict

Several Venezuelan NGOs demanded this Friday the exit of Javier Tarazona, the main voice to denounce the conflict between the Armed Forces and FARC dissidents in a border area due to the lack of official data.

Tarazona, director of the NGO Fundaredes, was arrested on Friday by agents of the Nicolás Maduro regime in the town of Coro, in the state of Falcón, with his brother Rafael Tarazona and human rights defenders Omar de Dios García and Jhonny Romero.

The organization Amnesty International (AI) joined the request on Friday, through AI’s director for the Americas, Érika Guevara-Rosas, who described the arrest as an “attack” against human rights defenders in Venezuela, “in addition to the 97 denounced by the High Commission human rights. of the United Nations ”.

“We demand that the (Bolivarian National Intelligence Service) Sebin release Johnny Pacheco, Omar de Dios, Javier and Omar Tarazona, refugees victims of disappearances from the coasts of Falcón and Fundaredes”, he demanded in a message posted on Twitter.

the Venezuelan Human Rights Education-Action Program (Provea) He also demanded on his Twitter account for Tarazona’s release and held Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López responsible for his integrity; the Mediator, Alfredo Ruiz; the Minister of the Interior and Justice, Carmen Meléndez, and the Office of the Prosecutor.

Carlos Patiño, lawyer from Provea, an organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of human rights, added on his Twitter account that the Last Thursday, United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned in her latest report on Venezuela, the criminalization of NGOs and human rights defenders.

The organization L’Espace Public also joined in the demand for Tarazona’s release. and added that “defending human rights is not a crime”.

Likewise, the NGO Access to justice He said they did not know the whereabouts of Tarazona and other activists arrested with him, “who benefit from a precautionary measure of protection issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)”.

For his part, the director of Penal Forum of NGOs, Alfredo Romero, rejected “arbitrary detention” and joined the demands for release.

The complaint of the arrest of Tarazona has been made Fundarèdes, a few hours earlier on Twitter, where he said that in addition to his director, the activists Rafael Tarazona and Ómar García, and the director of the National Committee of Families Victims of Disappearances and Trafficking on the Coast of Venezuela, Yhonny Romero.

“From Fundaredes, we denounce the arrest of our CEO Javier Tarazona when he went to the prosecutor’s office in Coro, in the state of Falcón, to denounce that he was victim of harassment and persecution by officials of Polifalcón (Falcón State Police), Sebin (intelligence service) and unidentified individuals ”, the NGO wrote on Twitter.

In addition to requests for release, several Venezuelan politicians like the opposition Juan Guaidó, who also demanded the release of human rights defenders.

“Javier Tarazona is a courageous man who denounces the vulnerability of Venezuelans at our border, must be released immediately ”, expressed the opponent in the same social network. representative of Guaidó before the The Organization of American States (OAS), David Smolansky, called Tarazona’s arrest a “kidnapping” and assured him that he was “missing”.

“Tarazona’s work has been impeccable in exposing irregular armed groups in the country. The dictatorship is responsible for what happens to him, “he said on Twitter.

With information from EFE

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