Venezuela's Political Prisoners Join Student Hunger Strike

CARACAS, Venezuela, Sept. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- A public hunger strike being held by some 34 students on the steps of the Caracas office of the Organization of American States (OAS) was joined by six more people on Sunday night, as the political prisoners Ivan Simonovis, Lazaro Forero, Juan Guevara, Gustavo Azocar, Leocenis Garcia, and Eligio Cedeno published a statement announcing their solidarity.


The students protesting in front of the OAS have been on a hunger strike for three days now (with their numbers steadily growing), requesting that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) send a delegation to investigate the situation and secure the release of political prisoners, including the 22-year-old student leader Julio Cesar Rivas, who was arrested in early September for participating in a protest against a new controversial education law. When the young Cesar Rivas was incarcerated in open population at a notoriously dangerous prison facility, public outrage ensued.


"It says a lot about where President Hugo Chavez's revolution has gone when he has lost all support of the youth, boasting about using tear gas against them, and now, throwing the sons and daughters of Venezuela into the most violent prisons in Latin America," said Robert Amsterdam, the international attorney for Eligio Cedeno, one of the hunger striking political prisoners. "The international community has a responsibility to act upon this hunger strike, and immediately break its silence over Venezuela's treatment of political prisoners."


According to a statement published on Cedeno's website and in the Venezuelan media, the six political prisoners have joined in solidarity with the students "to call attention of all of the Americas represented in the OAS, as well as global opinion, to the lack of rule of law in Venezuela." The statement emphasized, "Our children are not alone!"


The broad range of participants in this hunger strike shows how Chavez's repression affects all sectors of society, says Amsterdam. The police chiefs Ivan Simonovis and Lazaro Forero were arrested and tried on trumped up charges for doing nothing more than carrying out the duties of their positions during the events of April 2002. In a recent letter to the former attorney general and current ambassador to Spain, Isaias Rodriguez, Simonovis wrote, "you have manipulated evidence, changed stories, distorted witness testimonies, and using your broad political power, intimidated and manipulated judges and prosecutors to persecute, disparage, and imprison many Venezuelans."


Juan Guevara was arrested and imprisoned in 2004 on charges of being involved in the controversial murder of Prosecutor Danilo Anderson, which is widely denounced as a frame job to cover up the true authors of the crime. Gustavo Azocar is a journalist who has been imprisoned for more than two months accused of financial charges - three judges have already abstained from hearing his case, while most recently another was suspended by the state. Leocenis Garcia is another journalist who was imprisoned and allegedly tortured in 2008, leading the UK-based NGO International PEN to denounce his treatment.


Eligio Cedeno, accused of foreign exchange fraud, was first imprisoned in February of 2007 under pre-trial detention, though the state had not yet charged him with any offense of such grounds. His first trial was abruptly suspended the night before the final verdict once it was clear he would be acquitted of all charges. Over the course of the state's handling of the Cedeno case, most rights to defense have been denied, more than 17 prosecutors have resigned, and the only judge to issue a favorable verdict was forced to seek political asylum in the United States after an attempted kidnapping of her son. Cedeno's treatment, like that of several other political prisoners, stands in open violation to domestic and international law, as well as Venezuela's international treaties, his lawyers say.


For ongoing information and updates on the Eligio Cedeno case, please visit http://www.eligiocedeno.com/ and Robert Amsterdam's new Venezuela-focused blog, at http://www.robertamsterdam.com/venezuela