- Title: Imprisoned Venezuelan opposition leader's health at risk, doctor warns
- Date: 11th August 2021
- Summary: CARACAS, VENEZUELA (FILE - JULY 2017) (REUTERS) GUEVARA WIPING HIS FACE FROM TEAR GAS AT PROTEST GUEVARA PROTESTING AT NEWS CONFERENCE GUEVARA FACING OFF WITH RIOT POLICE VARIOUS OF GUEVARA AT NEWS CONFERENCE GUEVARA SPEAKING AT NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SESSION CARACAS, VENEZUELA (FILE - NOVEMBER 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GUEVARA SHORTLY AFTER LEAVING CHILEAN EMBASSY
- Embargoed: 25th August 2021 20:23
- Keywords: Freddy Guevara Venezuela detained health opposition leader
- Location: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
- City: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
- Country: Venezuela
- Topics: South America / Central America,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA002EPU3P6V
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Imprisoned Venezuelan opposition leader Freddy Guevara's health could be at risk due to cardiac arrhythmia, his father and a doctor who treated him for coronavirus earlier this year said on Wednesday (August 11).
Guevara, a close ally of opposition leader Juan Guaido - recognised by the United States and others as the South American country's legitimate president - was detained on July 12 and charged with terrorism, treason, and an attack on the constitutional order.
His allies say the charges are trumped up as part of an effort by President Nicolas Maduro's government to crackdown on dissent.
Washington and the United Kingdom condemned the arrest, which came as Venezuela's government and opposition prepare for internationally mediated negotiations to resolve a longstanding political crisis in the economically devastated nation.
Guevara had suffered multiple episodes of arrhythmia, for which he received surgery in 2016, his father reported.
Venezuela's information ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Guevara's health.
Julio Castro, an infectologist who advises the opposition on health issues and treated Guevara for COVID-19 in June, said he was unaware of what evaluation and treatment Guevara had received, in any, in the month he has been held at the Helicoide detention centre in western Caracas, run by the Sebin intelligence policy.
Guevara's attorney Omar Mora Tosta said the defence team has not had access to him in the month since his arrest, and that a judge denied the team's July 27 request for Guevara to be transferred temporarily for a medical consultation.
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