US urged Maduro regime to release activists who denounced Chavismo: “Attacks on civil society must stop”

The United States urged the Nicolas maduro release the activists detained for denouncing Chavismo and ensuring that “A free and vibrant civil society is a fundamental pillar of democracy.

By a message on your Twitter account, Julie chung, Acting Under Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the United States, asserted that “The indictment against Fundaredes in Venezuela criminalizes the work of NGOs to report the truth, defend human rights and hold leaders to account.”

“Maduro regime’s persistent attacks on civil society must end», He concluded.

The director of the Venezuelan NGO Fundaredes, Javier Tarazona, the main voice in denouncing the conflict between the armed forces and FARC dissidents in a border area, and his two colleagues Rafael Tarazona and Omar García, they were arrested last Friday.

The arrest took place while they were on their way to the headquarters of the Public minister in the northwestern state of Falcon to denounce that the leader of the NGO “Victim of harassment and persecution by officials” of the Police of this entity, the Intelligence Service and “unidentified officials”.

Tarazona has been one of the fundamental voices to inform about the conflict that started last March between the Armed forces and dissidents of the FARC in the state Hurry (border with Colombia) and which lasted about two months with an unknown number of deaths. At the head of Fundaredes, he became an essential source for knowing what was happening in the region due to the lack of official data.

The arrest of the three activists has been condemned by dozens of NGOs and the Venezuelan opposition, which also demand his release by asserting that defending human rights “is not a crime”.

Chavista prosecutor’s office defended accusations of “terrorism” against activists who denounced the regime

The Attorney General of the Chavist regime defended arbitrary arrests of activists who had denounced the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, carried out under the charge of “terrorism”. The case had been considered particularly disturbing by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle bachelet.

Tarek William Saab, Attorney General of Venezuela, said on Tuesday that the three members of the human rights NGO Fundaredes What they were arrested last Friday they received instructions from abroad to “attackThe country and change the order. “These are accusations that we could qualify as calumny that compromise the security of the country, ”Saab said.

“These people received from abroad, according to the computer and telephone expertise carried out, instructions to attack the Venezuelan state.”, Venezuelan institutions and alter, seek to alter the Republican peace, “the attorney general said in a statement released by the state channel Venezuelan TV (VTV).

The official, key to the regime’s repressive structure, asserted that the three activists, including Javier Tarazona, known to have denounced a conflict between the Armed Forces and FARC dissidents in a border area, they brought charges against the Venezuelan state without presenting any evidence. According to him, Tarazona, his brother Rafael and the activist Omar García carried out “Defamations which seriously compromise the security of the country.”

The activists had recently denounced the alleged relationship of the Venezuelan state with the Colombian guerrillas of the ELN and FARC dissent, as well as the existence of clandestine drug-processing tracks and laboratories. “These public statements and the alleged complaints obviously constitute an incitement to hatred against the highest authorities in the country, both civilian and military, and aim to create a matrix of negative opinion at the international level and therefore pave the way for new attacks against Venezuela “, pleaded the prosecutor.

Saab further ensured that behind these new attacks, there is a “foreign military intervention”. Authorities are investigating the activists’ phones, where, they say, there is evidence of the “instructions” they received, although they have not been able to identify the people who allegedly sent them. orders.

The Attorney General reiterated that the activists were charged with the crimes of “promoting hatred, treason and terrorism”. and indicated that they are being held in the “detention center known as Hombre Nuevo Simón Bolívar, located in the capital Caracas”.

(With information from EFE and AFP)

Read on: