The Venezuelan opposition, which is grouped under leader Juan Guaidó, on Saturday denounced the torture of soldiers detained in recent years by the government of Nicolás Maduro and those they consider “political prisoners.”
“Our institutional Armed Forces officers, who are being held in defense of the Constitution, are being tortured and subjected to the worst prison conditions,” Venezuelan opponent Julio Borges, Guaidó’s commissioner for foreign affairs, said in a Twitter post.
“We demand that human rights organizations raise their voices and put pressure on the (Maduro) regime to guarantee the life and freedom of our army,” Borges added on Twitter.
According to the local NGO Foro Penal, which defends those considered political prisoners in Venezuela, at least 123 soldiers remain behind bars for opposition to the Maduro government.
One of them, according to the count made by the Criminal Forum, is the army colonel Johnny Mejías Laya, who was arrested on January 30, 2019, without the details of his case being known so far.
Relatives of this man in uniform denounced that during his detention and in state custody, he was subjected to physical and psychological torture.
María Gabriela de Mejías, the wife of the military prisoner, denounced on the same day that the army is being denied the medical care and drugs it needs to treat some ailments.
“For more than 8 days (my) husband, Colonel Johnny Mejías Laya, has not been given any pills that were sent to him because he was urinating blood,” the woman said on Twitter.
According to Borges, the Maduro government is carrying out these actions together with its ally Cuba, with the intention of “destroying” the Venezuelan armed forces.
“Therefore, he persecutes and imprisons those who are an example in the institution. The world cannot allow another indignation, we demand the full freedom of all soldiers who are unjustly detained,” he said.