The Venezuelan opposition announced this Saturday the death of the former governor of the state of Nueva Esparta. Alfredo Diaz during an “unjust sentence” in El Helicoide prison in Caracas.
“Today, unfortunately, an innocent leader dies unjustly in prison,” lamented the … Venezuela’s main opposition coalition, the Unitarian Democratic Platform, on its X social media account.
Díaz, 55, died after a year in prison and solitary confinementas reported by the director of the NGO Foro Penal, Alfredo Romero, also on his X account, before ask for immediate explanations to the Venezuelan government as “responsible for the health of the person in his care”, as his widow Leynys Malavé also did on social networks.
Likewise, 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, dies at the Helicoide torture center. He had been asking for medical attention for months and they denied him, they killed him. “This is another victim of the dictatorship,” he said.
Díaz was arrested by security forces in November 2024 while traveling by bus to the border with Colombia after the controversial presidential elections. 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.”