CARACAS.- The US Embassy for Venezuela and the Organization of American States (OAS) They rejected this Monday the “arbitrary” detention of human rights defender and president of the NGO Citizen Control, Rocío San Migueland urged the Nicolás Maduro regime to release him “immediately” and that of “all political prisoners.”
In a publication on its worrying trend of apparently arbitrary arrests of democratic actors.”
And he added: “we join the international community in urging the release of all political prisoners, an end to the detention of their innocent relatives and a return to the commitments established in the Barbados Agreement.”
For his part, the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagrocondemned the “arbitrary detention of the director of the NGO Citizen Control, Rocío San Miguelrecognized and respected lawyer”, who has precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
“Systematic repression and persecution continues in Venezuela, especially against human rights lawyers and members of NGOs (…) We demand compliance with protection measures and their immediate release and the cessation of political persecution,” he stated. Almagro.
The IACHR condemned through its profile in forced disappearance of the defenderbeneficiary of precautionary measures” and urged the State to “report on her whereabouts and ensure respect for her judicial guarantees and presumption of innocence.”
Sources close to San Miguel indicated that fShe was arrested on February 9 when she was trying to leave the country at the Simón Bolívar International Airport, in Maiquetía.
On Sunday, the attorney general of the Maduro regime, Tarek William Saab, confirmed the arrest of the activist whom the regime links, without evidence, to an alleged “conspiracy plot” and attempted “assassination” against Maduro.
In a message on the social network , and attack military units.
Saab did not provide evidence to support the aforementioned accusations, and indicated that elements continue to be collected against people related to the reported events, whom he did not identify. He also did not refer to the place or the conditions in which San Miguel is located.
The 57-year-old Venezuelan lawyer is president of the Citizen Control organization, specialized in the defense of rights, security and armed forces. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted her and her daughter precautionary measures in 2012.
They denounce “forced disappearance”
The lawyer’s legal team denounced this Monday the ““forced disappearance” of five relatives among whom are her daughter, Miranda Díaz San Miguel, and her ex-husband and father of her daughter, Víctor Díaz Paruta. Two brothers from San Miguel, Miguel Ángel and Alberto, were also arrested.
Following this news, Almagro has “condemned the arbitrary detention of Rocío’s relatives” and demanded the release of all of them. “The criminalization of human rights defenders is an unjustifiable outrage and extending the violation of their rights to the family is a reprehensible and infamous action,” he concluded.
Organizations defending human rights in Venezuela condemned the arrest of the activist, whom they consider one of the most representative figures in the fight for respect for said rights in that country.
The activist organization Civilis Human Rights condemned the incident and described the activist’s detention as “arbitrary”, while demanding “to know her whereabouts” after two days have passed in which she is not known, as it claimed in a message in X.
A photo of San Miguel with the message “#dondeEstaRocío” circulated on the organization’s account.
For its part, the non-governmental organization Provea denounced on Saturday that San Miguel “has been a victim of harassment, persecution and discrimination by the Venezuelan State,” which it considered a “very serious” fact that shows “the efforts of the government for repressing critical voices,” as noted on her X account, and demanded that she be released immediately.
According to figures from the NGO Foro Penal, a humanitarian organization that provides legal assistance in the face of “arbitrary” detentions in Venezuela, as of February 5, there were 261 political prisoners, among whom there are 18 women and 146 soldiers, and 123 who are not. They have been found guilty.
Gonzalo Himob, vice-president of Foro Penal, indicated that they do not know where San Miguel is and added that they are collecting information on the case.
Source: EDITORIAL / With information from AP
