The Foro Penal Venezolano, an NGO that tracks the status of people arrested in Venezuela during the protests, said today that 64 Venezuelans have been arrested since Friday for protesting in Caracas and Barquisimeto alone. 47 people were arrested in Caracas, while 17 were arrested in Barquisimeto.
The president of the Foro Penal, Alfredo Romero, says that none of the arrested citizens have been granted access to lawyers or their families so far. Romero explained:
Until now, none of them has had access to lawyers or family members. The ones arrested in Caracas were taken to Fuerte Tiuna, then to a forensic lab, then before a judge, and then to the helicoide, headquarters of the Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia [SEBIN]. which is out of the ordinary. They’ve already told us that they’re out of the SEBINs hands, but we don’t know where they are.
Romero explained that it has become more and more commonplace for protesters to be taken to the SEBIN headquarters upon arrest, and that his organization is not sure why this is.
He also said that detained Venezuelans continue to suffer violations of their human rights at the hands of Venezuelan security forces:
This is how the elements of arbitrary detention begin. When a person is charged with a crime by the state, when only the state has access to that person, a partiality is placed and a barrier to the right to a defence is placed. The right to a defence is intrinsically connected to the right to access a lawyer, and this is something that’s not happening.
The 47 arrests in Caracas yesterday stem from the protest seen in the video below. The demonstration, which took place in the Bello Monte neighbourhood of the city, quickly escalated to a confrontation between demonstrators and the National Guard, which saw the use of rocks, fireworks, molotov cocktails, and tear gas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QHjqGcnKzY
Protests in Barquisimeto Continue
Unrest in Barquisimeto continued to rock the city’s streets yesterday, as security forces once again met protesters in the east side of the city yesterday.
Below, a video of some of the unrest yesterday. The video shows protesters throwing molotov cocktails at National Guard troops, and the National Guard attempting to disperse the protesters. Towards the end of the video, a large group of protesters who had set up base on top of a residential building can be seen being detained:
In Venezuela 