CARACAS – Those detained in the post-election protests in Venezuela, held in maximum security prisons, have a “poor” diet, the NGO Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP) denounced this Friday, noting that some “look malnourished” and that they receive only two glasses of water a day.
“The food received by the young detainees, who were transferred to the Tocorón prison, in the state of Aragua (center), is also deficient, in the opinion of their relatives. In addition, they consume water that is not drinkable,” said the OVP in a press release in which he highlighted that the same situation is experienced in the Tocuyito prison (Carabobo, center).
Tocorón and Tocuyito – which were for years under the control of criminal gangs – were the two prisons set up to hold hundreds of detainees during protests against the supposed victory of ruler Nicolás Maduro on July 28, when the opposition denounced fraud and claimed responsibility. the triumph of its candidate Edmundo González.
More than 2,400 people were arrested in the context of the demonstrations, including 164 teenagers, of whom 67 remain detained and accused by the regime of “terrorism.”
“Repression”
“When relatives manage to see their loved ones, they do not recognize them because of the situation they are in; they see them malnourished and pale,” he added.
According to the OVP, in these centers detainees are only receiving “two glasses of water a day” and have limited access to their families. The NGO spoke of cases in which, after two months, mothers were able to see their children for just 10 minutes.
He also denounced that family members are subjected to “humiliation” during searches.
“We had almost two months without seeing my son, my son is malnourished, my son is sick, they are giving him food with worms, they are not giving him water. They are not hitting him but they are giving him very strong psychoterror,” said Mireya González, mother of one of those detained in Tocuyito, in a video released by the Human Rights Coalition organization.
The demonstrations also left 27 dead and 192 injured.