The Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado reported this Monday the arrest of Javier Cisneros and Gabriel Gonzaleztwo collaborators of the presidential campaign of the former ambassador Edmundo González Urrutiabringing the total of anti-Chavista young people arrested since Friday to five.
This is “the regime criminalizing the electoral route”the former deputy told reporters, adding that 37 the total number of opponents detained so far this year, of which 20 are directly linked to the González Urrutia campaign command, who will face Nicolás Maduro in the July 28 elections.
Machado explained that Cisneros, youth leader of his Vente Venezuela (VV) party, and González, from the party’s communications team, “went out to buy something for lunch,” near the political headquarters, when they were “intercepted and taken to the Helicoide”, where the dungeons of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin) are located.
“These young people are being linked to a file in which they are accused of inciting hatred and association to commit a crime for the simple fact of accompanying our candidate” during a political event in the state of La Guaira, near Caracas.
The opposition reiterated that these young people, who “have not committed any crime,” are victims of arbitrary arrests, like the rest of the anti-Chavistas arrested in recent months, “in the face of an electoral process” in “conditions absolutely contrary to any democratic standard.
He denounced that some of the detainees have been denied the right to have private lawyers, in which case the public defenders ask the anti-Chavistas to blame Machado for violent plans as a condition for their release.
For his part, González Urrutia said this Monday that the Maduro regime seeks to create a “hostile” environment with the arrests of anti-Chavistas ahead of the July 28 elections.
“It is about creating a hostile environment (for) the elections, before the start of the campaign,” scheduled for July 4.
In González Urrutia’s opinion, these arrests “they encourage young people to get discouraged and leave the country” and “they are a violation” of the Barbados agreement, in which the Executive and the opposition Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) agreed on electoral conditions last October.
“These are actions that go against not only the spirit and letter of the Barbados agreement, but also affect the normal development of the electoral campaign (…). “These events are not going to discourage us, we are going to continue in the electoral fight in which we are committed and in which we are sure that we are going to win,” he said.
He announced that the PUD will denounce “this new attack by the Government in all international instances,” since it involves “serious violations” of the guarantees agreed upon between the parties.
Between Friday and Saturday, politicians Jeancarlos Rivas and Juan Iriarte, as well as journalist Luis López, were arrested, all linked to González Urrutia’s political act in La Guaira.
(With information from EFE)
