Persecution in Venezuela: Chavista police arrest journalist Carmela Longo and her son in Caracas

The Chavista persecution continues in Venezuela. This Sunday, the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) Journalist Carmela Longo and her son were arrested after a search of their home in the Horizonte urbanization in Caracas.

The incident was denounced by the National Union of Press Workers (SNTP), which indicated that So far, the location to which they were transferred is unknown.

“#URGENT | Right now, the house of journalist Carmela Longo is being searched. The Bolivarian National Police has arrived with a search warrant,” the union published on its social networks.

Then they published another message with a video of the moment in which Longo and his son are loaded into a PNB van. As reported by SNTP, The security officers also took away “computer equipment”.

“The PNB takes away the journalist Carmen Longo and her son as well as computer equipment. It seems that tyranny is practicing (…) ‘The Week of the Long Knives’ while part of the International Community removes the leaves of the Daisy so as not to call by its name the biggest and most brazen electoral theft in America,” added Venezuelan activist and lawyer Tamara Suju on her social networks.

On August 20, the entertainment journalist revealed that she had been suddenly fired from the newspaper Últimas Noticias, where she worked for almost two decades.

“Today, a stage of my life of almost 20 years ended and four days after I left for vacation”he expressed on his social networks.

This arrest is in addition to the one that took place a few days ago, when agents of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) took the journalist from The Patilla Ana Caroline Guaitawhich remains detained by the Chavista dictatorship.

The journalist Vladimir Villegas He added that “her only crime is being the daughter of two opposition leaders, Dr. Carlos Guaita and citizen Xiomara Barreto, both of the Copei Christian Social Political Party.”

Various human rights organizations and media outlets have condemned the arrest, calling it an act of harassment and repression against freedom of expression. The incident highlights a pattern of recurrent actions against members of the press in Venezuela, especially since Nicolas Maduro declared himself the winner of elections that were widely condemned by the international community for their lack of transparency.

The arrests of Longo and Guaita come amid a Growing political tension in Venezuelawhere independent media and journalists are constantly confronted with threats and acts of intimidationThis situation has been denounced on several occasions by various international organizations, which consider these acts to be a flagrant violation of human rights and freedom of the press.

Between July 29 and August 4, the Institute of Press and Society (IPYS) of Venezuela documented 79 violations of press freedom related to election coverage and protests following the presidential election results. Reported transgressions include physical and verbal assaults (30), stigmatizing speeches (18), arrests (7), censorship measures (7), Internet restrictions (7), administrative restrictions (6), judicial harassment (3) and limitations on access to information (1).

Since the protests began on July 29, At least six journalists have been imprisoned and prosecuted for terrorism and incitement to hatred. Those arrested include: photojournalist Yousnar Alvarado in Barinas; the VPI TV cameraman, Paul Lionin Trujillo; the photojournalist Deysi Pena in Los Teques; the journalist and political activist Jose Gregorio Camero in the La Pascua valley; Besides the leader of Voluntad Popular, Roland Carreñoand the journalist Victor Ugasboth in Caracas.