Venezuela says it arrested a human rights defender for plotting to assassinate Maduro – 2024-02-16 13:13:50

The Venezuelan activist and human rights defender Rocío San Miguelpresident of the NGO Citizen Control, was arrested for her alleged link to a conspiracy that included a plan to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro, the attorney general, Tarek William Saab, reported this Sunday.

The confirmation of the capture comes two days after, according to various non-governmental organizations and opposition political parties, it was The lawyer was also detained at the Maiquetía international airport – which serves Caracas -, where she was planning to take a flight with her daughter.

In X, the prosecutor indicated that San Miguel was arrested after an arrest warrant was issued against her for “allegedly linked and referenced in the conspiracy and attempted assassination plot called White Bracelet, whose objective was to attack the life of the head of state, Nicolás Maduro, and other high officials”.

‘White Bracelet’ is, according to Saab said in January, the most recent conspiracy of five that the authorities dismantled since May of last year, for which more than thirty people, including civilians and soldiers, have been arrested.

The prosecutor said this Sunday that the plan also included the “attack on several military units in San Cristóbal (Táchira state) and other entities in the country.”

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He assured that the investigations “continue their course, gathering elements of conviction from people related to these serious events inside and outside the country.”

Amnesty International (AI) called this Sunday for the “immediate and unconditional” freedom of the activist and asked for respect for his rights and the “precautionary protection measure issued in his favor” by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in 2012, as well as “access to lawyers and family members.”

NGOs have reported that San Miguel’s family has not known his whereabouts since his arrest last Friday.

The activist had reported this month that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IDC) requested the Venezuelan State to present, “by May 6 at the latest,” a report on compliance with a sentence handed down in 2018 in her favor and two others. people, for the dismissal from their public positions in 2004, after having signed the call for a recall referendum of then-president Hugo Chávez. EFE