Opposition leader and former Venezuelan governor Alfredo Díaz, imprisoned for a year for conspiring against the Maduro government, dies in prison

Former Governor Alfredo Díaz gives a speech. — caption, According to authorities, former governor Alfredo Díaz died of a heart attack in the cell where he had been held for more than a year.

Former Venezuelan governor Alfredo Díaz died in the prison where he had been for a year.

Díaz, 56, is the latest politician to join the list of Chavismo dissidents who have lost their lives in a prison in the country, the Venezuelan Penal Forum reported.

According to the human rights organization, the politician, governor of the island state of Nueva Esparta between 2017 and 2021 and previously mayor of one of its municipalities, died this Saturday of a heart attack in a cell in El Helicoide, the feared headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) in Caracas, where “he had been detained and isolated for a year.”

The news was confirmed by Venezuelan authorities as well as Díaz’s relatives and his political party, the social democratic Democratic Action (AD).

“Now they are taking you back to your beloved island in a coffin,” his wife Leynys Malavé wrote on Instagram.

The United States, through the State Department, criticized the opponent’s death, saying it was “a reminder of the abhorrent nature” of Nicolás Maduro’s regime.

What is known?

Díaz was one of more than 2,000 Venezuelans arrested following repression in the country following the disputed July 28, 2024 presidential election.

The politician, who questioned the official results that gave Nicolás Maduro victory, was arrested in November 2024 in the town of Ospino, about 380 kilometers southwest of Caracas, on charges of “incitement to hatred” and “terrorism.”

The Ministry of Corrections confirmed that the death occurred on Saturday afternoon due to a heart attack and assured that the necessary care was provided.

“(He was) supported by his fellow inmates and the emergency was immediately treated by the emergency doctor and paramedics on duty of the said unit, who provided him with basic medical care,” the statement posted on Instagram said.

The politician was then transferred to the Caracas University Hospital near El Helicoide, where he died, the ministry said.

This theory is supported by the judiciary.

“Prosecutors from the Ministry of State were present at the autopsy of the deceased and it was proven that he died of a heart attack,” Venezuelan judicial sources assured BBC Mundo.

However, his daughter Alejandra María Díaz questioned the official version, saying in statements to the American news channel CNN that her father was not provided with adequate medical care during his detention.

The Venezuelan Constitution states in Article 272 that “the State shall guarantee a prison system that ensures the rehabilitation of inmates and respect for their human rights.”

On Saturday evening, the coffin containing the opponent’s remains arrived on Margarita Island, where the funeral will take place, local media reported.

View of the helicoids between buildings. — caption, Díaz’s death has drawn renewed attention to Helicoide, the headquarters of Venezuela’s intelligence services.

“I was prosecuted”

In its statement, the Ministry of Corrections assured that Díaz would be brought to justice “with full guarantee of his rights, in accordance with the legal system and with respect for human rights and his legal defense.”

However, the former governor’s relatives and the opposition leadership did not share this opinion.

Opposition leader María Corina Machado blamed the government for what happened.

“Alfredo was in the custody of the Nicolás Maduro regime,” he wrote in a statement.

“His physical integrity and life were the sole responsibility of those who arbitrarily abducted him from a headquarters widely denounced by international organizations as a systematic torture center.”

In recent years, El Helicoide has attracted international attention. In 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered Venezuela to end the “inhumane and degrading” conditions in which detainees were being held at the facility.

Subsequent reports from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela led authorities to temporarily stop using the facility as a prison.

Baduel in conversation with Chávez in 2006. — caption, General Baduel, who was an army commander under Chávez, also died in a Venezuelan prison.

More cases

The former governor is not the first opponent and/or dissident of Chavismo to lose his life behind bars in Venezuela. Foro Penal has counted another 17 cases since 2014.

Among the most notorious examples is retired General Raúl Isaías Baduel, who died in El Helicoide in October 2021 from “cardiovascular arrest related to complications of COVID-19,” according to authorities.

His relatives, in turn, complained that the officer, who served as commander general of the army and was a friend of the late Hugo Chávez, was denied adequate medical care to treat his ailments.

Years earlier, former President of Petróleos de Venezuela and former Minister of Petroleum Nelson Martínez also died in custody in the military intelligence dungeons while awaiting prosecution for alleged acts of corruption.

One of the former official’s sons, Charles Martínez, publicly denounced at the time that his father had received treatment too late.

Another emblematic case was that of former opposition council member Fernando Albán, who died in Sebin’s custody in October 2018, a few days after being arrested at Maiquetía International Airport.

Initially, the authorities claimed that the politician jumped from the tenth floor of the secret service headquarters; However, over time, his family and human rights organizations’ version that he had been tortured to death was confirmed.