Eduardo González
The European Parliament yesterday condemned the imprisonment of “hundreds of political prisoners” in Venezuela, among them the Spanish-Venezuelan lawyer and activist Rocío San Miguel.
After a debate held on Wednesday, yesterday the plenary session approved, with 497 votes in favor, 22 against and 27 abstentions, a resolution denouncing the recent arrest of Rocío San Miguel, a lawyer and activist of Spanish nationality, for allegedly conspiring against the regime. San Miguel is being held in the El Helicoide prison, “known for human rights abuses, including torture,” according to the Madrid office of the European Parliament in a press release.
Rocío San Miguel was detained on February 9 when she was trying to leave Venezuela with her family. The Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office links the lawyer and those close to her with a conspiracy plot – called Brazalete blanco (White bracelet) – to assassinate the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro. On February 17, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, had a telephone conversation with his Venezuelan colleague, Yván Gil, in which he was interested “in the arrest of the Spanish-Venezuelan citizen Rocío San Miguel,” according to a Ministry spokesperson.
The text also includes the case of General Hernández Da Costa, imprisoned since August 2018 and who is denied the medical treatment he needs, and members of the team of the opposition María Corina Machado –Juan Freites, Luis Camacaro, Guillermo López and Emil Brandt -, detained for political reasons and who remain incommunicado.
The MEPs call for the immediate release of all political prisoners and people arbitrarily detained and demand that Nicolás Maduro’s regime “end its policy of repression and its attacks against civil society and the opposition.” They also denounce that the prisoners are being held in conditions that violate the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
Likewise, they urge the EU to toughen its sanctions against the Venezuelan authorities and to include in them members of the regime’s leadership, the security forces, the Supreme Court and President Maduro himself. “The International Criminal Court must, for its part, include human rights violations and arbitrary detentions in its investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed by the regime,” Parliament adds.
