That has been Maduro’s strategy for more than a decade. Thus, the expression “revolving door,” used to refer to the Soviet penitentiary system, has gained currency under the Maduro regime.
It is in this perverse logic that on November 12, Maduro said on his TV show: “I call on Dr. Tarek William Saab, Attorney General, I call on the country’s judges, as head of state, if there is any case to rectify and also review that there is justice.” On November 15, Attorney General Saab announced that the situation of hundreds of detainees would be reevaluated. Thus, as of November 19, 143 people had been released (10 adolescents and 133 adults).
There are few reasons to celebrate. Terrorism trials are ongoing, those released from prison must periodically appear before the court in charge, torture allegations have not been investigated, statements and confessions under duress remain in force, the massive disrespect for the rights of dozens of children has not been remedied. Many detainees were released from prison in the cities to which they had been transferred, not in the place where they were arbitrarily arrested, so their families had to raise funds to reunite, in a country where gasoline and transportation are a luxury for many.
There is only a small group of mothers and wives who will no longer have to communicate with their detained children and partners with white balloons from the other side of a wall, or give in to extortion to pass food, clothing or medicine. It is the only thing to celebrate.
Maduro’s cynicism about the releases was reflected by himself in a tweet: “The happy release of this group of Venezuelans was a joint initiative between the Attorney General, Tarek William Saab; the president of the TSJ (Supreme Court of Justice), Caryslia Beatriz Rodríguez, and me, in the search for justice.” We insist, these are not liberations, they are releases.
For Jesús Manuel Martínez Medina, detained in the context of the protests, “happiness” did not come. On Thursday, November 14, he died in custody, due to the denial of timely care for his health; he suffered from heart disease and diabetes, which was complicated by skin infections. The prosecution issued a statement stating that Martínez Medina “had the proper medical care and was given the medications and other treatments that his health condition warranted,” without referring to the delay in his transfer to the hospital where his leg was amputated.
The door continues to revolve, with Operation Tun Tun, threats, extortion, the closure of civic space, the criminalization of victims and pressure to silence those who denounce. In this last case, the organization Provea was the target of a new attack. Provea had denounced the death of the journalist and leader of the state of Apure, Edwin Santos, whose death was presented by the government as accidental. The Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace said that the people and organizations that claimed that Santos’ death was a murder would be investigated and, in fact, on November 17, the general coordinator of Provea, Oscar Murillo, received a summons to testify at the headquarters of the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigations Corps (CICPC), without it being known in what capacity he was summoned or the judicial process to which the request for testimony was related. Murillo’s case immediately raised alarms, but also great national and international solidarity. At the close of this analysis, it was learned that Murillo appeared as a witness in the file on the Santos case.
While Murillo was testifying in Caracas, officials from the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence and the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service surrounded the headquarters of the Zulia state courts, taking the president of the Judicial Circuit, Pedro Velazco, and two other judges into custody. The arrest of at least one prosecutor from the Public Ministry was also reported, although details of the possible motives for these arrests are not known.
Maduro seems to want to project an international image of normalization as January 10 approaches, the date of the inauguration of the president-elect of Venezuela and January 20, the date of the inauguration of the president-elect of the United States. His recent references to peace and justice suggest this.
However, Maduro acts like a predator who plays with his prey, loosening but not letting go. The international community must remain alert and not be distracted by this staging, when the core of the conflict remains intact: the lack of knowledge of the results of the presidential election.