Authorities Must Investigate the Alleged Killing of Edwin Santos in Apure, Venezuela

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In the early morning of Friday, October 25, Edwin Santos—a regional leader of a Venezuelan opposition party, activist, and radio broadcaster from the border town of El Nula—was found dead on a bridge connecting the Venezuelan states of Apure and Táchira. Santos had been missing since Wednesday, October 23, after witnesses reported that he was detained by state security agents while traveling by motorbike to the town of El Pinal in Táchira. Witnesses also reported that he was held at the headquarters of Venezuela’s military counter-intelligence agency (DCGIM) in Guasdualito, Apure. The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) is deeply troubled by Santos’s death, which comes in the context of massive repression after the July 28 presidential elections, and calls on Venezuelan authorities to independently and thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding Santos’s death.

Santos was not only a co-founder of Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) in Apure, a national party opposed to President Nicolás Maduro’s government, but also an influential young leader, activist, and devoted Catholic volunteer. He was well-known for his dedication to democratic causes and his local community.

Mr. Douglas Rico, director of the police’s Scientific, Criminal, and Forensic Investigations agency (CICPC) published a statement on the same day that Edwin Santos’s body was found, without first conducting a thorough investigation, stating that Santos died in a motorbike accident after colliding with a tree and dismissing any other possible cause of death. Moreover, in his social media accounts, Mr. Rico says that the CICPC has received instructions from the Ministry of Internal Relations, Justice, and Peace, under the control of Minister Diosdado Cabello, to initiate an investigation against anyone who is part of “campaigns of disinformation and lies.”

These events have occurred in a context in which the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela found that there are reasons to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed “as part of the same widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population, in furtherance of a State policy to silence, discourage and quash opposition to the Government of President Maduro.” Since the July 28 presidential election, where President Maduro’s victory has been widely disputed due to credible evidence suggesting otherwise, there has been an alarming crackdown on opposition activists, which has been qualified as State-sponsored terrorism by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, including at least 25 deaths and nearly 2,000 detentions.

WOLA strongly condemns the ongoing political persecution in Venezuela and calls on the authorities to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into this alleged killing, ensuring that any material and intellectual authors of this suspected crime are brought to justice. Edwin Santos’s family has a right to know the truth about the circumstances in which he died.

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Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=67281676d8b246b2bb4fc149ca8d95f0&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wola.org%2F2024%2F10%2Fauthorities-must-investigate-alleged-killing-edwin-santos-apure-venezuela%2F&c=6431342765707300847&mkt=en-us Author : Publish date : 2024-10-29 04:41:00 Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source .

Authorities Must Investigate the Alleged Killing of Edwin Santos in Apure, Venezuela

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