- Title: PERSONAL: Venezuelan mother begs for return of teen detained in crackdown
- Date: 23rd September 2024
- Summary: CARACAS, VENEZUELA (SEPTEMBER 16, 2024) (REUTERS) (MUTE) VARIOUS OF DRONE VIEWS OF CARAPITA NEIGHBOURHOOD MOTHER OF DETAINEE, ADELAIDA HERRERA, IN HER SON’S BEDROOM HERRERA LOOKING THROUGH WINDOW HERRERA HOLDING PORTRAIT OF HER SON (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MOTHER OF BLEIDER LEVES, DETAINED DURING POST-ELECTORAL PROTESTS, ADELAIDA HERRERA, SAYING: “He wasn’t in the neighbourho
- Embargoed: 7th October 2024 12:19
- Keywords: Edmundo Gonzalez Maria Corina machado Nicolas Maduro Venezuela detained elections protest repression
- Location: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
- City: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
- Country: Venezuela
- Topics: South America / Central America,Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA001589521092024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Hours after being beaten and arrested, Bleider Leves Herrera, a 17-year-old Venezuelan, told his mother during a prison visit they covered his face with a plastic bag to force him to say he received money from the opposition leader Maria Corina Machado to protest the July 28 election results.
Members of the National Guard arrested Leves while he was returning to a poor Caracas neighbourhood after visiting his girlfriend. A guard grabbed him by the shirt, kicked him in the chest, and took him to the police headquarters, his mother, Adelaida Herrera, told Reuters.
A U.N. fact-finding mission concluded President Nicolas Maduro's government escalated repressive tactics to crush peaceful protests and maintain power after Venezuela's disputed election in July.
The mission, which interviewed several hundred people remotely or in third countries as it was denied access to Venezuela, said authorities tried to dismantle the opposition, block independent information, and stop protests.
Outside the Caracas national police headquarters, where Leves is under arrest, Herrera and other relatives demanded freedom for their loved ones with signs reading "Our children are not terrorists."
Electoral authorities awarded the vote to Maduro without showing all the tallies, but the opposition claimed its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, won by a landslide with counts proving that. More than two dozen people died in protests, with 2,400 arrested.
According to the U.N. mission, 24 out of the 25 deaths were caused by gunshot wounds, mostly to the neck. Arrests under the feared "knock knock" operation — referring to the unexpected arrival at the homes of government critics — often targeted ordinary citizens in poor neighbourhoods.
Maduro's government has blamed the opposition for the deaths, labeling protesters as "terrorists" and "fascists."
(Production: Reuters) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None