Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Monday night accused the two detained Spaniards of being “terrorists” and once again linked them to the National Intelligence Center (CNI), something the Spanish government has denied.
In your weekly schedule With Maduro +broadcast on the state channel VTV, the head of state declared, without presenting evidence, that the two citizens of the European country are “infiltrated agents” of the CNI, and rejected the statements of the parents of the Spaniards that they were in Venezuela as tourists, after visiting Colombia.
He assured that the two Spaniards “were captured and they were found guilty, confessed and have all the evidence of the actions they carried out inside Venezuela to assassinate people, plant bombs, etc.” “Now it turns out that they were good people, tourists, who were walking and were captured,” said Maduro, who said that “it attracts a lot of attention” that “the Spanish CNI is entering into operation against Venezuela.”
The detainees are Andrés Martínez Adasme and José María Basoa Valdovinos, aged 32 and 35 respectively. They were captured in Puerto Ayacucho, in the southern state of Amazonas, on whose phones, according to the Venezuelan government, the authorities found conversations in which they asked “how they buy explosives” and “contact groups that would like to do special work.”
The Spanish Foreign Ministry has already denied that Spain is involved in a “political destabilization operation” in Venezuela and has “categorically rejected any suggestion” about it, after the Venezuelan government claimed that Spain “was going to provide mercenaries” for an alleged operation . led by the United States. It has also denied that the two detainees are part of the Spanish CNI, as the Venezuelan government claims, nor that they belong to any other state organization.
According to their families, both were in Venezuela as tourists. Last Monday, September 9, and after losing track of them, they reported their disappearance on social networks and to the Police.
“Intensification of the repressive apparatus”, according to the UN mission
Meanwhile, the Fact-Finding Mission established by the UN Human Rights Council to document violations in Venezuela has accused the government of Nicolas Maduro of committing the crime against humanity of political persecution.
According to the Mission, chaired by Portuguese lawyer Marta Valiñas, the government apparatus is now trying to crush all peaceful opposition through a series of actions that are not “isolated or random, but are part of a continuous and coordinated process aimed at silencing, discouraging and repressing” those who might express thoughts that do not conform to official rhetoric.
“We are witnessing an intensification of the repressive apparatus of the State (…) Although it is a continuation of previous patterns, the recent repression, due to its intensity and systematic nature, represents a very serious attack on the fundamental rights of the Venezuelan people,” Valiñas said when presenting to the press in Geneva the latest report prepared by his team.
The Mission, which also includes Chilean lawyer Francisco Cox and Argentine human rights expert Patricia Tappatá, supported by a technical team, will formally present its report to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday.
Among the facts and conclusions that stand out are that the current crisis that Venezuela is going through “is the worst in recent history” and that “a new stage in the deterioration of the rule of law” was reached after the presidential elections of July 28.
The members of the Mission believe that the public authorities no longer even seek to feign a certain independence and that citizens are totally defenceless against arbitrary action because many judicial guarantees have lost their effectiveness.
The report, which initially covers the period from September 1, 2023 to August 31, has been updated to cover events before and after the elections. Among the cases documented are 48 arrests between December and March of last year for conspiracy, as well as arrest warrants against other people, who are not only activists, journalists or political opponents, but even military personnel.
During the month of July, in the middle of the election campaign, 120 people were arrested, although another 2,000 people suffered the same fate after the check, according to data from the authorities themselves, who accused them of terrorism and incitement to hatred. According to the Mission, among the latter were at least a hundred minors, some of them disabled. “The Mission had already warned that the government could activate its repressive apparatus at will, and that is what we are seeing now,” Cox said.
