The death of another opposition politician in prison sparked a new attack by the US government against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Alfredo Díaz, 55 years old and former governor of Nueva Esparta, the died in prison on Friday where he was charged with “terrorism” and also with “incitement to hatred,” led to a flood of publications, particularly on the social network X, in which the human rights policies of the Venezuelan regime were again questioned.
Donald Trump’s State Department published in its Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs report that “the death of Venezuelan political prisoner Alfredo Díaz, who was arbitrarily detained at Maduro’s El Helicoide torture center, is another reminder of this.” the vile nature of Maduro’s criminal regime“.
Díaz was a member of the Voluntad Popular party, which confirmed his death through a statement: “Victim of a devastating heart attack while unjustly imprisoned. He died an innocent person, under the absolute responsibility of the Venezuelan state, in a cell he should never have known.”
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“His death is a double tragedy: Alfredo left without being able to say goodbye to his mother, who died when he was kidnapped by the dictatorship. He and his family suffered immense pain, which is multiplied today by this irreparable loss,” they added.
“This is not an isolated case.. It is the direct result of a system that persecutes, imprisons and destroys lives in order to maintain power. Alfredo Díaz died without freedom, without justice and without minimum guarantees, in a prison where the regime decides who lives and who dies,” they said after the death of Díaz, imprisoned on July 28, 2024, following the elections in his country.
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The Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal also condemned the opposition leader’s death in state custody after he was arrested “Detained and isolated for more than a year”said its director Alfredo Romero.
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Another opposition figure, Edmundo González Urrutia, who, according to data confirmed by the Carter Center, won last year’s elections – in which Maduro was declared the winner, but without providing the corresponding data – and who is currently in exile in Madrid. also too He regretted the tragic outcome of the former governor.
“It is not an ordinary death. It is a crime that is the responsibility of the regime. “His integrity and his life were the exclusive responsibility of those who arbitrarily abducted him from the SEBIN headquarters in Helicoide, which has been widely denounced by international organizations as a systematic center for torture and other human rights violations,” said the statement by González Urrutia and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado.
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With Díaz’s death, eight political leaders have died in prison since the July 2024 elections, in which many countries were unaware of the results due to a lack of transparency and allegations of fraud. Also on this list are Edwin Santos, Jesús Martínez, Lindomar Amaro, Jesús Rafael Alvarez, Osgual González, Reinaldo Araujo and Jonathan Rodríguez.
According to complaints from several human rights organizations around the world, the Maduro government is at least holding on 887 people are accused of conspiring against the ruling party. Díaz was detained at the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) in El Helicoide, Caracas. The place is described as a “torture center” by the Venezuelan opposition and human rights activists.
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