Venezuela opposition decry crackdown before Maduro swearing-in

FRANCE 24 English

Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00Venezuelan opposition parties and NGOs have declined the arrests of a prominent press freedom activist and a well-known

00:05opposition figure among others ahead of planned protest against Friday's

00:10inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro for his third term in power.

00:17Daily life is running its course in Caracas,

00:20but on Friday the Venezuelan opposition hopes to see thousands of demonstrators take to the streets.

00:26It doesn't recognize Nicolas Maduro's win in the July elections,

00:32which garnered both domestic and international criticism.

00:3728 people were killed and over 2,000 were arrested in a crackdown on protests after Maduro declared victory,

00:45while the opposition's Edmundo González Urrutia claimed a landslide win.

00:52Uncertainty now looms over the swearing-in ceremony on Friday.

00:57If it's Maduro, I don't care, because it's something we already suspected, of course.

01:03But if Edmundo is sworn in, well, that's fine.

01:07I mean, both things don't really matter to me, because in this situation you have to be very neutral.

01:15Over 7 million of Venezuela's 30 million citizens have fled since Maduro took over from Hugo Chávez in 2013.

01:24Most refugees and migrants go to Colombia, which borders the country to the west, as well as other South American countries.

01:34A Dallas Borrego moved to Chile eight years ago and opened a restaurant.

01:42This time it was possible to show what the government has been doing in my country for many years.

01:48They castrated us, silenced us, made us leave.

01:52What do I have? Faith, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of anguish.

01:57But this time, I feel it's going to be different.

02:03Many of Venezuela's neighbours recognise the opposition candidate as the legitimate president-elect,

02:09as do the United States and the European Union.

02:14There are fears that Maduro's third term could trigger a new wave of mass migration.

02:22So the son of the opposition leader, Edmundo González, kidnapped.

02:26That's after González had a meeting with Joe Biden in Washington.

02:31And the other issue is the director of the press freedom NGO Espacio Público, Carlos Correa,

02:37has been arrested too, Tuesday afternoon by hooded officials.

02:41Amnesty International has been highlighting this case and others.

02:45Valentina Ballesta is the deputy director of research for the Americas at Amnesty.

02:50She joins us now live.

02:52A very good evening to you.

02:53This case of Carlos Correa, how alarming is it in your opinion?

02:59Well, thank you for the invitation, first of all.

03:02And for Amnesty International, our biggest concern here is how this case and this arbitrary detention

03:09that we suspect is an arbitrary detention, although right now we don't know his whereabouts,

03:14is based on solid research we have concluded, we have carried out in the last seven to eight years,

03:22showing how politically motivated arbitrary detentions are used to silence any form of criticism of dissent.

03:30And right now, what we are seeing with Carlos Correa is the consolidation of a pattern

03:36in which human rights offenders are seen as opposition to the government,

03:42which wouldn't have to be the case in any other situation.

03:47Human rights defenders fight and have the right, of course, to defend others' rights.

03:53So it's alarming.

03:55It's joining, unfortunately, at least of at least four other human rights defenders.

04:01And now we are obviously worried about the risk he's facing of being submitted or subjected to

04:09ill-treatment or torture and also to be charged of counts of terrorism or other arbitrary or

04:19with highly arbitrariness behind charges.

04:23What you've described is disturbing.

04:24The details about how he was arrested, too, by hooded officials, again,

04:29gives a certain image of things that really are incredibly dangerous and threatening.

04:35Could you give us more of an idea of what Carlos Correa's work has been like?

04:39How has he offended the Maduro regime?

04:44Yeah, that's an excellent question, because Carlos Correa is one of the highest known

04:49or high profile human rights offenders in the country.

04:52I'm talking about a person who has devoted his life to fight for freedom of expression.

04:58He has the lead, led the Espacio Público, as you mentioned, this NGO,

05:04which with over 20 years of work, denouncing, reporting and also advising victims of human rights

05:15violations such as journalists or TV or radio stations that had been closed.

05:23So this is a person who has devoted his whole life to fight for others to be able to express themselves.

05:32So right now, obviously, this sets the tone on how the government intends to move forward in the next few days.

05:39There was the attempt back in 2019 to get Nicolás Maduro out of power.

05:44Juan Guaido, of course, was the leader of that.

05:47And now, of course, he was unable to carry out that movement to get Maduro away from power.

05:53How do you explain Nicolás Maduro still being in power, still being reelected?

05:58Well, right now, it is not a matter of the elections.

06:02At the moment, we are deeply concerned on the human rights situation.

06:06Of course, the elections right now also have been contested widely, not only by Venezuelans,

06:12but also outside of the country.

06:15So I don't think it is the same scenario that happened in Venezuela in 2019.

06:21However, what is still ongoing and is still concerning is how rooted is the arbitrariness

06:29and how deep the mechanisms are still in place that are making this possible,

06:37which is silencing and repressing any form of dissent,

06:42even the one that is perceived that is not actually a threat to the power.

06:46So we are talking here about enforced disappearances.

06:50We are talking about torture.

06:51We are talking about torture against adolescents and minors and children.

06:56And right now, yeah, human rights defenders are also enlisted in this.

07:04Yeah, through what they are doing now, they are consolidating this policy of repression.

07:11And yeah, the international community should be treating this as a human rights crisis,

07:16more than a political crisis.

07:18Valentina, thank you very much for giving us your insights

07:21into these disturbing cases in Venezuela.

07:23Valentina Ballester is the Deputy Director of Research for the Americas at Amnesty International.

07:28Thank you for joining us. Thank you for your time.

07:30And of course, we will continue to watch for developments on this story.

07:33Valentina, once again, thank you very much indeed.

Category

Transcript

Recommended