The story of a lieutenant of the Venezuelan army tortures, humiliations and violations of his fundamental rights suffered at the Ramo Verde military prison

When the first lieutenant of the Venezuelan army Eliezer Daniel Vásquez Guillen called it two years ago, on March 30, for "an interview" at the headquarters of the Military Counterintelligence Directorate (DGCIM) in Caracas. He had no idea that scary trip of torture, humiliation, denial of justice and violation of their fundamental rights. He therefore confessed to the officials of the United Nations who sent the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michel Bachelet

Vásquez stands at the Ramo Verde (Cenapromil) military treatment center. "I worked at the head of the engineering division of Fort Tiuna maintenance center in Caracas," began his narrative.

The DGCIM stopped him when he was introduced to the interview. "At this place, I was the victim of cruel, subhuman and degrading treatment, they did not inform me of my situation or the reason for the summons". He was held incommunicado for nine days. "unable to use basic services".

When he went to the headquarters of the DGCIM, "the interview was initiated at the time by Cape (Néstor Neptalí) Blanco Hurtado (aka Ezequiel) in the company of the 1st Deiver Salas and T / F Angola ". The first lieutenant badured that there was not a single test to stop him.

To the lieutenant Eliezer Vásquez Guillen he was presented to the Military Court of First Instance with Brigadier General Ángel Vivas Perdomo, supposed leader of the movement and the following eleven junior officers: Captain Víctor Asdrúbal Pereira Labrador; and the first lieutenants José Ángel Rodríguez Araña, Ronald Leandro Ojeda Moreno, Marcos Antonio Briceño Camacho, Joshua Abrahán Hidalgo Azuaje; José Ignacio Medina Marmolejo, Luis Eduardo Berbesí Torres, Francisco Pablo Rodríguez Ojeda, José Daniel González Bolaño, Luis Alejandro Mogollón Velásquez and Rafael Eduardo Arreaza Soto.

He reported that on March 7, 2017, after 8 pm Judge May (Ej), Claudia Carolina Perez de Mogollón, ordered the deprivation of liberty for 45 days, "They then appeared in court for three months to comply with the formalities of the judicial process."

From the beginning, they noticed the due process violation. "They denied the lawyers of the decisive acts by which they accused us of the crimes of treason against the fatherland, planned and punished in article 464, numbers 25 and 26, instigation to the rebellion envisaged and sanctioned in l '39. Article 481 and the military rebellion provided for and sanctioned by Article 476 (1) of the Organic Code of Military Justice.

Judge Pérez de Mogollón did not give any office, so It was impossible to request copies of the file and to establish the defense of the case.

On seven occasions, the preliminary hearing has been postponed. "During that time I went victim of isolation in cells remote from the prison population without being able to practice recreational activities, activities giving right to the redemption of sentences, an hour of daily sunlight and obstruction of the entry of lawyers the day of the visit that corresponded ".

He pointed out the constant research done by the prison director at the time, C / N. José Ramón Boston Silva (which in January 2018 was arrested for the flight of nine officers). "Each cell where we coexisted the TM-2017-029 cause, known to the public as the "sword of God", I had cameras in closed circuit, that, to this day, always save the day to the day of our activities, violate the private life of the detainee ".

Vásquez Guillén says that the research staff of the DGCIM, "They came constantly to hit, shock, mistreat, steal, in order, in my opinion, to submit more to the fear of being the victim of abuse.. In June 2017, after the release of videos of Leopoldo LopezIt was the strongest requisition we had to live. "

Another episode was the one, the January 14, 2018, under the direction of C / F Jorge Russa Brett, "when they entered the DGCIM, the officials took control of the prison, the security posts, disarmed the guards, stole the phones from the military officials of the prison and with a list they searched for a private group, among them to me, they hit me in the left intercostal area, causing a fracture of the rib, Fracture of the fibula as a result of blows received with a metal cane, I was not medically treated. The guards S / M3ra Saans and S / 2do Wilker Dautantt took advantage of this moment to fight without distinction ".

The captain Victor Asdrúbal Pereira Labrador, which is part of the cause, was released with precautionary measure, on November 30, 2017. "We were deferred for the eighth time, annihilating the hope of the 10 officers who had been deprived, Oct. 1, Jose Ángel Rodríguez Araña I am leaving the La Pica military prison, the ninth hearing that sets us apart and gives us the excuse that they did not know the situation of Rodríguez Araña, knowing that the director of the military prison La Pica was deprived of liberty under investigation for this escape, with me and in the same cell ".

On November 30, 2017, after another disappointment for the tenth report, they are taken to the prison. The Toyota Land Cruiser, a long chbadis, three guards and eight inmates appeared as new. "The head of the T / F Ojeda commission does not come with us, but the A / N does not Jesús Garay Gómez; By changing the order of the commission, we removed the handcuffs from the court, while they had already handcuffed us before leaving, thus violating the security measures during the transfer of the prisoners. "

On the way to the prison, a group of his fellow soldiers "They took advantage of the situation, the resentment of injustices and not wanting to be judged by a corrupt court, which is why I understand them, I support them and I do not criticize them. They took control of the vehicle, the armament and the staff, which I measured so that we went, without harming the guards and balanced to obtain a result without violence. Guard S / M3ra Saans, who was the driver, could be released and reported to the police, which a lawsuit begins with shots at the vehicleS / 2do Vielma having been wounded in the left arm; A confrontation with S / M3ra Saans, a motorized policeman and my colleagues started. The policeman fell injured in the face with a bullet; In the theft of the vehicle, the rear doors were opened by a dangerous maneuver that caused the vehicle to fall, S / 1ro keeper Jhonathan Leal Palacio and 1Tte Luis Alejandro Mogollón Velásquez, who did not receive any medical attention at the time of the accident. time and now suffer from dizziness, headache, vomiting and convulsions, without double fracture of the skull has been verified which is clearly visible in both scars in the two anterior parts of the head, has no bone and one observes the brain attached to the scalp. "

S / 2do Vielma and S / 2do Oliveira, belonging to another criminal case and not part of the escape, fell from the vehicle on the march ", being surrounded by police, traffic and other reasons that have generated pressurethey decided to run and I hid and waited to deliver me; three of the first lieutenants managed to escape (1Hidalgo Azuaje, Marcos Briceño Camacho and Ojeda Moreno). 1st Rafael Eduardo Arreaza Soto was executed by the police with a a bullet in the chest and a bullet in the head, a fact that has not yet been clarified. "

According to Vásquez Guillén, "When I visited, I was taken to a wooded areawhere, by the grace of God and by my communication with a policeman, I indicated that he was a political prisoner, that he had been deprived of his liberty for seven months for conspiracy crimes and a supposed coup d'etat. State; in the middle of loud blows and death threats asked me to kneelI managed not to kill myself by telling explicitly what happened in the leak and that I did not participate, I just ran to take care of my life.

Return to the direction of military counterintelligence

After all that happened with the escape, 1st Lieutenant Vásquez Guillén was taken to the Military Counterintelligence Directorate on 1 December 2017. "C / N Boston Silva, Cape Blanco Hurtado and two agents of the DGCIM, they beat me, they muffled me, they tortured me to find out where the escapees wereNot to mention that Captain Russa Brett and a group of professional naval troops who worked as guards beat me to the point of breaking my head with so many blows. All this before moving from the direction of the penitentiary to an improvised torture room. "

They presented the young officer with a new case in military courts. J & # 39; was hitwith obvious marks of torture, but still "the 3rd Judge Cap Amezquita, did not give much importance and I was again deprived of freedom and return to Ramo Verde, where I went locked in the isolation cell nicknamed "the tigrito" despite the wounds he presented, for almost a month and without visits from my relatives so they do not see my injuries.

No new preliminary hearing took place before 33 postponements, an escape, four first lieutenant bishops, a badly wounded first lieutenant and a first lieutenant killed. "Finally, the hearing took place on February 12, 2019 and ended on February 15; this was due to the pressure to hand over the charges to another judge without an outstanding trial, which was upheld by the Chief Justice May. Claudia Carolina Perez of Mogollón, who came out of prenatal rest. All this with violation of due process and obstruction of self defense, when in November 2018 was published, without the decisive acts of the second case and without the copies of what I have been accused: escape, misuse of a firearm, badault on the sentry, removal of the effects of the armed forces and riots; was deferred by the Abg private defense. Beverly Alfonzo and Abg. Dom Crespo, who requested an extension of the hearing to have access to the files that had not been submitted on time, each document request, each visit to the doctor and various documents containing information about my case have been recorded. It has never been answered. "

Thus, Lieutenant Vásquez Guillén was brought to justice on eight counts: betrayal, incitement to rebellion, rebellion, attempt to escape a prisoner, misuse of a firearm, robbery of the effects of the armed forces, badault of the sentry and riot. "Without proof, without a firm and powerful accusation giving way to the violation of my fundamental rights."

March 13th a commission from the United Nations arrived at the Ramo Verde military prisons United Nations, to verify the situation of prisoners. In order to discuss with the UN inspectors, screams and beatings were used for the bars to be processed. Everyone can not talk about his case. The prisoners were kept locked in their cells.

The detainees at Ramo Verde badure that General M / G Joshua Hidalgo Berroteran, Inspector General of the Armed Forces; G / D Carlos Yánez Figueredo, Director of the Military Penitentiary (Dispemil); G / D Edgar Rojas Borges, President of the Court Martial; Cnel. Atilio José Peña Ruiz, director of Ramo Verde Prison they did not allow communication with the UN commission.

Vásquez Guillen said that "G / D Rojas Borges claimed to be wrong to put me there, accusing me of being involved in the leak and having shot at the face of A police officer; product of this was taken into account my case and took note of the execution of the 1st Rafael Eduardo Arreaza Soto ".

The G / D, Yánez Figueredo, asked for a list of commission members, but this was never allowed. "After the visit of the UN commission, the guards retaliated. They were forbidden to enter the prison for the parents of private persons who had mentioned or denounced the violation of human rights; the excuse is that there has been a failure in recording the data of the visits. "

The family of Vásquez managed to pbad when an order from the Inspectoría General de la Fuerza Armada arrived, surprisingly, "who observed many novelties and violation of human rights that they themselves tried to hide during the presence of UN inspectors. "

The young man cataloged the case "as irrefutable, public, notorious and communicative evidence of the violation of human rights and due process, Decrees 3 298 and 3 299, in which 24 army officers were included, without even holding a preliminary hearing, "he is demoted and expelled from the armed institution".