The Venezuelan Prisons Observatory (OVP) reported this Monday that it has been seven years since the disappearance of the submariner and economist Hugo Marino, a case that organization classifies as “forced disappearance” and that, to date, continues without an official response from the Venezuelan State.
According to the OVP, Marino would have been detained by officials from the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) after his arrival in Venezuela in 2019 to visit his family. Since that moment, the NGO states, there has been no verifiable information about his location.
The organization He warned that, despite the time that has passed, an effective investigation has not been carried out nor has a clear explanation been offered to the family members about what happened, which keeps the case in total uncertainty.
The OVP recalled that forced disappearance is classified as crime against humanity in the Rome Statute, and also noted that there has been no significant progress in the investigations, while complaints persist about a lack of institutional responses.
Likewise, the NGO insisted on the need for the Venezuelan State to meet the demands of Marino’s family, especially those of his mother, Beatriz Salas, who has maintained the search for information during these seven years without results.
“Faced with this reality, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (Prosecutor’s Office) and the Ombudsman’s Office have the obligation to act in accordance with their constitutional mandate and not remain silent and deaf in the face of an extremely serious case,” the organization stressed.
He disappeared in Venezuela since his arrival in 2019
According to local media reports, Hugo Marino entered the country on April 20, 2019 through Maiquetia International Airportwith the intention of staying a few days with their families. Since then, his whereabouts have not been known again.
Marino was known for his work as an economist and for his career in underwater investigations and locating damaged aircraft. According to journalistic investigations, he lived outside Venezuela and had no formal political militancy, although in the context of 2019 he would have shown interest in the political situation in the country and expressed sympathies towards opposition sectors.
Various human rights organizations have included his case among a group of alleged forced disappearances registered in Venezuela in recent years. In this framework, the Network of Released Persons for Democracy recently brought its case before a parliamentary commission that supervises compliance of the amnesty lawalong with other similar complaints that remain without official resolution.
