On Thursday, a UN fact-finding mission "found" something that most people knew years ago: "Venezuela's Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) committed serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity over more than a decade in targeting political opponents," including "arbitrary detentions, sexual violence, and torture during protest crackdowns and targeted political persecution since 2014" under Nicolás Maduro.
I've written about a few of those cases.
There's Marggie Orozco, a 65-year-old small-town doctor and grandmother who was recently sentenced to 30 years in prison by a kangaroo court for urging her neighbors to vote for Edmundo González in the 2024 elections, and Jonathan Rodríguez, a 30-year-old autistic fisherman, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, buying some food where others were protesting. Orozco has a heart condition and has had a heart attack since being taken into custody last year. According to her husband, her health is declining rapidly. And sadly, Rodríguez died recently, after being held in deplorable conditions and developing a lung infection from which he never recovered.
You can read more about them here:
As It Turns Out, Humble Fishermen ARE Dying in the Caribbean
This Is What Dictatorship Looks Like: The Story of Marggie Orozco
Now I'd like to add two more high-profile cases to the list. And there are thousands, but these are the ones that made headlines this past week.
The first is Rafael Tudares Bracho. In January of this year, he was taking his two young children to school when masked men dressed in black kidnapped him. This wasn't some random crime. Venezuelan authorities later confirmed that they had detained him and charged him with "terrorism."
His actual crime? Marrying Mariana Gonzalez de Tudares, the daughter of Venezuela's real president-elect, Edmundo González. To put this in U.S. terms, it'd be similar to the Joe Biden administration jailing one of Donald Trump's daughters' husbands simply because of who his father-in-law is if Biden had stolen the 2020 election. If. Just saying.
But it's much more barbaric than the U.S. justice system. According to Rafael's wife, she hasn't been able to see or even communicate with him in 11 months. No one knows where he's being held, and it's believed that he's being tortured.
On Dec. 2, Rafael was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his "crimes" by a sham court. There was no actual due process, no evidence of any crime, and he had no fair representation. His wife posted the following on X on Thursday:
Regardless of the political conflict that exists between one side and the other, I reiterate that I do not participate, nor do I involve myself in any way, in politics. Rafael and I are irrelevant to those who engage in politics in this country and to those factors that support them. Proof of this is that Rafael has been enduring a forced disappearance, and now an unjust and absurd criminal sentence of 30 years in prison, without that having had any political effect or being of greater interest to those who engage in politics, beyond a few people who occasionally express some words of solidarity for him and for all the people who are victims of situations of forced disappearance and arbitrary detentions.
Rafael, my children, and I are just another Venezuelan family that struggles daily with work and effort. We have no political ambitions and never will. Politics has done us a great deal of harm.
She's right. Getting involved in politics in Venezuela can do you a great deal of harm.
The second person I'd like to mention is Alfredo Díaz. He previously served as the governor of the state of Nueva Esparta in Venezuela and pushed economic and infrastructure development, which was not popular with the regime. He was also a vocal critic of Maduro, who basically neglected any states led by the opposition. To put this one in a United States perspective, he was kind of what a Ron DeSantis type would be to the Biden administration.
After leaving office, Alfredo remained involved politically in various grassroots movements and protests against the regime, but a dictator's gonna do what a dictator has to do. After Maduro declared himself the winner of last year's election, despite evidence proving otherwise, the country basically turned into one big protest — until he began detaining and disappearing people in the months that followed.
Related: How to Slip Past a Regime and Collect Your Nobel Peace Prize
In November, Alfredo was reportedly attempting to get the heck out of the country when he was detained. He was also charged with "terrorism" and thrown into a place known as El Helicoide. It was supposed to be a shopping center, but it turned into a detention center notorious for torture. The political prisoners there are beaten, denied medical care, and isolated. I actually just checked out Alfredo's X profile, and he was definitely outspoken against Maduro's regime. His last posts were dated two days before he was arrested.
Alfredo, who suffered from various health problems and didn't receive medical care while in custody, had a heart attack in his cell and died on Dec. 6. The regime claims he was taken to a hospital, but the opposition and several independent agencies say otherwise. During his year spent incarcerated, he was allowed one visit with his daughter, who spoke out about the horrific conditions inside.
Many people ignore these stories, but all of us should pay attention. What happens in Venezuela isn't isolated. If many people in our country got their way, it would happen here. I will never shy away from the opportunity to showcase the realities of how socialism and/or communism steal the God-given rights of freedom from people who are merely living their lives.
