MADRID, 6 (EUROPA PRESSE)
The Venezuelan opposition announced this Saturday the death of former governor of the state of Nueva Esparta Alfredo Díaz during an “unjust conviction” in El Helicoide prison in Caracas.
“Today, unfortunately, an innocent leader dies unjustly in prison,” lamented Venezuela’s main opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform, on its social network X account.
Díaz, 55, died after a year in prison and solitary confinement, as reported by the director of the NGO Foro Penal, Alfredo Romero, also on his
Opposition leader Leopoldo López also condemned Díaz’s death before denouncing mistreatment and abuse by prison authorities. “Alfredo Díaz, former mayor, friend, patriot and fighter, died at the Helicoide torture center. He had been asking for medical care for months and they denied it, they killed him. He is another victim of the dictatorship,” he said.
Shortly after, Venezuela’s most prominent opponents, Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo González, condemned Díaz’s death in a joint statement and also demanded accountability.
“Alfredo was in the custody of the Nicolas Maduro regime. His integrity and life were the sole responsibility of those who kept him arbitrarily kidnapped in a siege widely denounced by international organizations as a systematic center of torture and other human rights violations,” they said.
“Therefore,” they added, “this cannot be treated as an ordinary death; it is a crime under the responsibility of the regime.”
“Alfredo’s death is not an isolated event. Unfortunately, it adds to an alarming and painful chain of deaths of political prisoners detained in the context of post-election repression,” they concluded.
Díaz was arrested by security forces in November 2024 while traveling by bus to the border with Colombia following the controversial presidential election. After being held incommunicado for several days, he was transferred to Hélicoide prison, denounced by the opposition as a torture center for political dissidents.
In November, Amnesty International Americas described Díaz’s imprisonment as “arbitrary detention due to his political profile” and denounced that he had been subjected “to enforced disappearance during the first four days of his detention.”