This government, which claims to have brought Edmundo González to Spain “for humanitarian reasons”, will have to explain the reasons why it denied him asylum and subsidiary protection as a form of political retaliation against the Venezuelan opponent. Gabriel Valleswho was tortured by the dictatorship while he was imprisoned The tombthe regime’s most feared prison, and in Helicoide, another Chavista center where physical torture is practiced.
The Interior Ministry justifies its rejection with the ignoble argument that Valles cannot be considered a person “potentially persecuted simply because he is a sympathizer or activist of a Venezuelan opposition party.” This “only” is an attack not only on common sense, but also on dignity, because in Venezuela, being a sympathizer or activist of an opposition party is paid for with prison or death. According to Marlaska’s department, there is no indication that Valles suffers from a “risk of persecution.”
There is outrage that a government full of “human rights” is capable of refusing a victim of the dictatorship the asylum and security that she has long demanded. And the Executive’s justification arouses astonishment. How is there no risk of persecution for someone who has already been persecuted, imprisoned and tortured? At this point, it is worth asking the following question: is the pressure of the Maduro regime hidden behind the government’s refusal? This is not a gratuitous question.
In the resolution, published on August 8 in the BOE, the Ministry of the Interior, through the General Directorate of International Protection, grants the “temporary residence” in Valles and states in its legal basis number five that in Venezuela, being a political opponent “does not imply necessarily persecution by the Maduro regime“, which is why she refuses him asylum and subsidiary protection. The full quote This is an infamy.
