According to Venezuelan authorities, Alfredo Díaz died of a heart attack
Venezuela yesterday acknowledged the death of an opposition leader jailed for a year, while Washington called President Nicolás Maduro’s government “despicable” amid growing US military pressure in the region.
Alfredo Díaz was arrested at the hottest point of the post-election crisis sparked after the disputed July 2024 elections that proclaimed Maduro for a third term. The opposition denounces fraud and claims the victory of exiled opponent Edmundo González Urrutia.
The Ministry of Corrections reported the death of the 56-year-old opponent, who was accused of “terrorism” and “incitement to hatred.”
“He was prosecuted with full guarantee of his rights, in accordance with the legal system and with respect for human rights and his legal defense,” he said in a statement.
“On Saturday, December 6, 2025, at 6:33 a.m., citizen Alfredo Javier Díaz showed symptoms consistent with a heart attack (…).
Díaz, who was governor of the state of Nueva Esparta between 2017 and 2021, is the sixth opposition figure to die in prison since November 2024.
“The death of Venezuelan political prisoner Alfredo Díaz, who was arbitrarily detained at Maduro’s El Helicoide torture center, is another reminder of the abhorrent nature of Maduro’s criminal regime,” the US State Department said in the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs X report. Washington’s response comes as a U.S. flotilla, which includes the world’s largest aircraft carrier, conducts anti-narcotics operations in the Caribbean. Caracas claims that the Trump administration’s maneuvers are aimed at toppling Maduro.
“PATTERN OF REPRESSION”
Opposition leader María Corina Machado, who has been in hiding for more than a year and was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, said Díaz’s death “adds to an alarming and painful chain of deaths of political prisoners held in connection with the repression following the July 28 election.”
“The circumstances of these deaths – which include denial of medical care, inhumane conditions, isolation and torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment – reveal a persistent pattern of state repression,” Machado said in a joint statement with González Urrutia. Díaz was arrested at the National Intelligence Service (Sebin) headquarters, a place described as a “torture center” by the Venezuelan opposition and human rights activists.
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