Who are the 17 civilians sentenced to up to 30 years in prison for the failed attack against Nicolás Maduro – Up Jobs News

In addition to the sentence of 8 years in prison against the Venezuelan deputy Juan Requesens for the crime of conspiracy which was revealed this Thursday another 16 civilians received sentences of between 5 and 30 years in prison for allegedly being involved in the drone attack against Nicolás Maduro occurred in August 2018 in Caracas.

Judge Hennit Carolina López Mesa issued the sentence, while the fate of the four soldiers who are being tried in the same case is still awaited. In addition, a arrest warrant and extradition against deputy Julio Borges and the alleged financier of the group that led the attack, Osman Delgado Tabosky. Various opposition figures have criticized the lack of transparency in the process.

Sentenced to 30 years in prison

Alejandro Perez Gamez

Former director of the Services for the Maintenance of Internal Order and Chief of Operations of the Venezuelan National Guard. He was presented before the Chavista justice on the night of Monday, August 13 for his alleged participation in the events on Avenida Bolívar in Caracas..

Juan Carlos Monasteries

Former First Sergeant Major of the National Guard. He requested the withdrawal of the component after the protests against the Maduro regime in 2017. His family lives in the city of Maracay, in the state of Aragua.

Argenis Valera

According to information published by the Venezuelan Ministry of Communication Valera was known as “The Engineer” for his experience in handling drones. He was on Avenida Libertador in Caracas with a drone control in his hand at the time of the arrest.

Jose Miguel Estrada

Accounting student. According to the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, Estrada fulfilled advance and observation tasks during the attack. He was held in the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence.

Oswaldo Castillo

Student at the José María Baralt University of Maracaibo. He was kidnapped by the Chavista police and presented in Caracas for alleged assassination. In a video released by the Venezuelan dictatorship he admitted that he had been recruited in a camp where an alleged coup was being planned.

Alberto Bracho

Young native of Zulia state. On August 5, 2018, he was arrested on a highway that leads from the center of the country to the state of Barinas along with other young people.. Maduro’s regime forces kept him missing for 45 days. He was confined in a dangerous penitentiary center located in San Francisco de Yare, Simón Bolívar municipality of Miranda state.

Brayan Oropeza

According to the propaganda medium of the Maduro regime, Brayan de Jesús Oropeza Ruíz, was working as the pilot of one of the drones that exploded near the presidential box on Avenida Bolívar in Caracas.

Henryberth Emmanuel Rivas

According to the Venezuelan government, Henryberth Emmanuel Rivas, admitted in a video that after the attack against Maduro they were going to transfer him from the Chilean, Mexican and simultaneously to the Colombian embassy, ​​to leave the country through the common border.

Yolmer Escalona

He has been detained since August 5, 2018 in the El Rodeo II prison. After months of his detention, he began a hunger strike due to the constant torture and cruel treatment to which he has been subjected.

Emirlendris Benitez

She was arrested in Portuguesa state on August 5, 2018. Along with her, they apprehended Alberto Bracho Rozquez, Jose Estrada Gonzalez Y Yolmer Escalona. In the statement of the president of the International Independent Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Marta Valiñas, it is stated that Emirlendris Benítez She was subjected to torture at the DGCIM facilities in Boleíta and has not had access to effective medical treatment. As a result, her health has deteriorated significantly, leaving her confined to a wheelchair. Emirlendris was pregnant at the time of her arrest and due to the torture caused to her, she lost the baby.

Yanin Pernia

She is a massage therapist and assured that, together with a group of more than 15 people, they planned the operation against Maduro “without political or lucrative purposes.” She was arrested when she was traveling in a van with other people from the team. “They arrested us at 2 in the morning for the intelligence work they had done; The two drone operators who were arrested at the time of the attack had all the information on their cell phones, where we were going to be and what cars we were going to travel in. From that moment I was mistreated to confess what it all consisted of “told an interview with a local media.

Peter Zambrano

Colonel of the Bolivarian National Guard. In February 2020, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) denounced the case of Zambrano Hernández and pointed out that despite suffering from grade 3 kidney failure, he was still detained in Ramo Verde. Relatives of the now condemned man demanded access to medical treatment from the Maduro government.

Sentenced to 24 years in prison:

Angela Exposito

He is of Spanish nationality and was arrested for sheltering in his home Live Rivas, who intended to escape to Colombia with the help of Velasco García. He is a representative of Fundanimal, an NGO that kept under his care some dogs of people wanted for political causes. She was arrested by the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) accused of “conspiracy.”

Sentenced to 20 and 16 years in prison:

José Eloy Rivas (sentenced to 20 years)

He was arrested on August 5, 2018 for being the alleged financier of the attacks against Maduro. His relatives denounced that he suffered torture and cruel treatment by the authorities and due to not having timely access to medical assistance he has a peptic ulcer, gastroesophageal reflux and infectious enterocolitis

Héctor Hernández Da Costa (sentenced to 16 years)

Although he is a Brigadier General of the National Guard, he was sent to a civil court in charge of Judge Carol Bealexis Padilla Reyes de Arretureta. “The prisoners in the future will be others and the Republic will punish them with the full weight of the Law”, stated in his statement before the court.

Sentenced to 8 years in prison:

Juan Requesens

Despite his parliamentary immunity, deputy Juan Requesens was kidnapped by SEBIN, Maduro’s political police, on August 7, 2018 at his parents’ residence. Since then Requesens went on the list of cases of human rights violations in Venezuela when he was arrested without a court order, held incommunicado for almost three days and subjected to cruel treatment. His lawyers denounced inconsistencies in due process, such as the fact that the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice sentenced his trial without any evidence.

On August 10, 2018, a video of Requesens provided by SEBIN was broadcast on a radio and television network where the deputy is seen in his underwear, emaciated, confused and without saying a word. His sister, Rafaela Requesens denounced the inhumane treatment of which she was being a victim and expressed that the leaked video only seeks to humiliate the deputy.

Sentenced to 5 years in prison:

Wilder Vasquez

Chavista regime media describe Wilder Vásquez as one of the main accomplices of the attack against Maduro and assure that he was in charge of covering up Henryberth Emmanuel Rivas. They identified him with the alias of “El Capo. “He was one of the people who kept alias Morfeo safe,” said the Venezuelan Ministry of Communication.

Attack on human rights

The director of the NGO Cofavic, Liliana Ortega, denounced that her organization independently documented 215 cases of alleged attacks against human rights defenders” in Venezuela only during the year 2021.

“The attacks consist of arbitrary arrests, violations of due process, use of justice for persecution, acts of criminalization through the systematic state media, and raids.Ortega said.

“This is a systematic policy to “hinder, weaken, inhibit and ultimately eliminate the capacities of NGOs and human rights defenders”, manifested.

Given the escalation of violence and persecution against political leaders in Venezuela, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bacheletpointed out that the arrests in the Caribbean country are “a worrying example” of the “restrictions on civic space”.

(With information from EFE and AFP)

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