Venezuelan nongovernment organization Foro Penal announced on Tuesday that all minors unjustly detained in the aftermath of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro’s highly fraudulent presidential election have been released.
Over the past months, Foro Penal documented at least 129 children aged 14-17 that were unjustly detained, tortured, and charged with “terrorism” by the Maduro regime for allegedly participating in a series of nationwide protests that erupted after the highly fraudulent July 28 presidential election – which dictator Maduro insists he “won” despite local authorities’ continued refusal to publish voter data or documentation that can corroborate the claimed results.
As of mid-November, 69 minors remained unjustly detained, an amount that was “certified” on social media by Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS).
Foro Penal’s director Alfredo Romero informed on Tuesday evening that all of the remaining detained minors were released as of this week. While Romero celebrated it as “good news,” he stressed that this year marked the Christmas with the most recorded number of political prisoners in Venezuela, with some 1,800 adults still unjustly imprisoned.
Nationwide protests erupted hours after the highly fraudulent July 28 presidential election. Nicolás Maduro responded to the protests by launching a brutal persecution campaign that, according to estimates from United Nations experts, left 27 dead and more than 2,400 detained. Maduro regime officials claimed in August that none of the recorded deaths can be attributed to the socialist regime because “not a single complaint” was filed against any of the state’s security forces.
Regime officials had also denied that any “school-aged children” were detained, dismissing the reports by claiming that it was part of a “smear campaign” against the ruling socialists. Venezuelan interior minister and long-suspected drug lord Diosdado Cabello eventually acknowledged that minors had been detained during the crackdown — but blamed their arrest on their parents for allegedly allowing them to “protest.”
Some of the parents of the now-released minors spoke to media outlets and U.N. experts in recent months to denounce that their children had been subjected to acts of torture such as suffocation, brutal beatings, and electrical shocks, as well as other degrading treatment during their unjustly imprisonment such as being “stripped naked in front of the rest of the detainees, including adult males, and subjected to touching and groping.” Several of the minors were reportedly forced to record videos “confessing” their crimes.
Foro Penal informed on Monday that, as of December 23, 19 foreign nationals and 31 Venezuelans with dual citizenship remain unjustly detained as political prisoners of the Maduro regime.
In recent weeks, the Maduro regime has also arrested several American nationals that stand accused alongside other unjustly detained foreigners of allegedly plotting to assassinate Nicolás Maduro, members of the dictator’s top brass, and of purportedly aiming to “sabotage” Venezuelan state infrastructure through “terrorist attacks.” The Maduro regime has not publicly presented proof that can substantiate any of its accusations at press time.
Earlier this week, the Venezuelan Attorney General’s office announced the release of a group of 223 Venezuelans unjustly detained during the regime’s crackdown persecution campaign, and claimed that a total of 956 individuals have been released after their cases were “reviewed” by local authorities.
According to the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office, the reviewed court cases are allegedly linked to “the serious events that were intended to generate a civil war” after the highly fraudulent July 28 election. The amount of released individuals has reportedly been called into question by local nongovernment organizations that accuse the Maduro regime of “lying” with official statistics.