Edney Lopez disappeared at the airport. Maria Oropeza filmed her own arrest | Venezuela

At last someone knew about his whereabouts Edney Lopez It was Sunday and she sent a message to her boyfriend from the Miquedia International Airport in La Guevara (Venezuela). “My passport was taken away by the immigration officer as it was expired. In the name of God, don’t set me up because of a computer error”, the political science university professor wrote in a message shared with The Associated Press before he was lost.

The 33-year-old social worker and award-winning poet was preparing to board a flight to Argentina to see a friend without consulting a lawyer or informing her family, according to the charges. . “When her mother and friends found out that she had missed the flight, they started frantically searching the detention centers,” said The. Digital news.

On Tuesday – more than 48 hours later – they learned that he had been detained and held incommunicado by the Venezuelan military intelligence police. However, on the same day, the CNN in Spanish Asked about Edney Lopez at the Venezuelan Attorney General’s office, Attorney General Derek Sapp responded by saying he knew nothing about the case and was investigating.

“Please give me back my daughter. […] She is not a criminal,” her mother, Ninoska Barrios, told CNN, adding that she did not know why she was being held and confirmed that Edney had no party affiliation, adding: “I believe it was a misunderstanding.”

Maria Oropeza, a lawyer associated with Maduro’s opponents, live-streamed the moment of his arrest. Operation Tun-Tun was launched on Tuesday night, hours after a video was released denouncing the wave of illegal arrests sweeping the country. [truz-truz] Knocked on his door in an apartment in Caracas.

“Please, I’m willing to cooperate, but you have to tell me if you have an arrest warrant,” Maria was heard saying, as the agents forced their way in with a crowbar, saying they weren’t there to talk. “They enter my house arbitrarily. Without any search warrant”, he added, before the transmission ran out of footage, a moment later a loud voice was heard: “Do not resist”, someone said.

Maria Oropeza was the campaign chief of the Democratic Unity Platform, led by Maria Corina Machado and candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, in the rural state of Portuguesa in the center of the country. Minutes before her arrest, Maria Corina posted a plea for help to Oropeza on social network X.

In a video she published a few hours ago, Maria Oropeza said: “We know what they are doing – kidnappings, disappearances and even murders, without being reported by any public organization – which shows that we are facing a very cruel tyranny. It has been experienced throughout America’s history for the past 40 years. […] That is why I tell you, Venezuela: I know we are in a very difficult moment, I know we need to take more precautions, but fear cannot dominate us.

Maria and Edney are just two of more than 2,200 political prisoners that Nicolás Maduro has announced are being held as “criminals” and “drug addicts” who will be taken to new high-security prisons, some under construction. This Thursday morning, Foro Penal, a non-governmental organization that protects human rights in Venezuela, counted 1,229 arrests “verified and identified, including 105 youths, five indigenous people, 16 people with disabilities and 157 women.”

According to Venezuela’s National Union of Journalists, at least 13 journalists were detained and four of them were charged with terrorism. Website not available) in a report reproduced in various media and social media outside the country. Two of them are photojournalists (Yousner Alvarado and Daisy Peña), one is a camera operator (Paul Leon) and the other is a journalist and political leader (Jose Gregorio Carnero).

“We condemn the illegal and arbitrary use of anti-terrorism laws in Venezuela, especially against journalists and photojournalists arrested during the post-election protests in the country. In all cases, private security takeovers were prevented,” the report said.

The atmosphere of fear and repression continues, but the protest organized in the Venezuelan command, led by Edmondo González and Maria Corina’s campaign, plans a vigil for the freedom of prisoners in the country later this Thursday afternoon (night in Portugal): “You have a banner, poster or photo of a member of your family who is a political prisoner demanding freedom. Take it.”