Chapter 1 A Faceless Political Prisoner: Journey to the Drama of Arbitrary Detentions in Venezuela

• Pages: 16-41
• Author: Ezequiel A. Monsalve F.

A Faceless Political Prisoner:

Journey to the Drama of Arbitrary

Detentions in Venezuela

Ezequiel A. Monsalve F.

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17

A Faceless Political Prisoner: Journey to the Drama of Arbitrary Detentions in Venezuela

This Criminal Preliminary Proceedings Court of the Ju-

dicial District of the State of Bolivar, on behalf of the Bolivarian Republic

of Venezuela and administering justice, orders that Fray Lacava,1 18 years

of age, be imprisoned. The Court orders his immediate imprisonment in the

maximum-security area of Colonia Penitenciaria del Dorado, State of Bolivar,

with headquarters in the Municipality of Sifontes.2

While the judge read his decision aloud in one of the small, warm

courtrooms of the Palace of Justice in Puerto Ordaz, in the State of Bo-

livar in Venezuela, outside, a mob demanded the release of another

university student who, despite having been granted bail, had not been

released by the court but had been held for eight days in an overcrowd-

ed, narrow four-square-meter cell alongside several individuals who

committed ordinary offences.

That crowd, made up mostly of student leaders and classmates,

were extremely offended — you could see it in their faces. This was

just one of the thousands of omissions of the Venezuelan justice system

that occur daily. Enduring days in prison, without a court order, broke

every rule of the legal logic of contemporary criminal law.

Despite this, these episodes recur in Venezuela. In fact, with the

arrest of these two young people (May 15, 2017), a total of 2,977 arrests

were made in just 45 days of protests against Nicolas Maduro Moro’s

government policies,3 82 in the city of Puerto Ordaz alone.4

In the middle of this scene, at the end of Fray’s hearing, the lawyers

assigned to his defense approached, whispering in my ear: Ezequiel, we

1 Real name changed for the security and physical integrity of the person.

2 The ruling of the Preliminary Proceedings Court in charge of the criminal

case against Fray Lacava.

3 Foro Penal Venezolano [Venezuelan Criminal Forum], “Informe de

represión del 2017” [2017 crackdown report], Feb. 16, 2018, https://foropenal.

com/2018/02/16/reporte-la-represion-venezuela-2017/.

4 Author’seldnotes.