Venezuela's opposition said Saturday that three opposition activists were arbitrarily detained on Friday and have been missing since, following a wave of detentions of opposition political activists ahead of July's presidential elections.
Opposition party Vente said on X (formerly Twitter) that 19-year-old volunteer youth leader Juan Carlos Rivas was being brought before a court after “more than 20 hours of enforced disappearance.” Another opposition party, Voluntad Popular, said Rivas, Luis Lopez and Juan Iriarte had been summoned to a Venezuelan court and charged with incitement to hatred. The party noted that the defendants had been assigned public defenders, even though they had private lawyers.
Voluntad Popular accused the Maduro regime of targeting opposition members and activists, saying: “The government of Nicolás Maduro is once again attacking activists from Venezuela's democratic movement as a means of intimidation and to baselessly implicate them in criminal acts.”
In another post on X, Voluntad Popular commented on the disappearance of Juan Carlos Rivas: “Working through elections is not synonymous with persecution,” the party said.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado called the detentions “political persecution.” Machado was banned by incumbent President Nicolas Maduro from campaigning in the presidential election and instead supported Plataforma Uniétaria Democratia's presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia. Machado told reporters that the government had closed businesses and hotels that opposition members had been visiting. At least 13 of Machado's activists have been arbitrarily detained since January, Machado said.
