Trade unionist Orlando Ramírez was released early this Tuesday on a highway between the states of Lara and Yaracay, after having been detained for a month and without his whereabouts being known, said lawyer Eduardo Torres.
“We have the good news for our people that the transport sector unionist Orlando Ramírez has been released. We do not know by whom, because he suffered arbitrary detention and forced disappearance“said the lawyer in a video published on his X account.
According to Torres, the union member, who was arrested after protesting labor demands in front of the Ministry of Transportation in Caracas, contacted other colleagues to inform them that they had left him on a highway in the west of the country.
Likewise, he pointed out that the union member is now with his family.
Torres maintained that he will go with Ramírez to file a complaint about this fact before the Human Rights Directorate of the Attorney General’s Office in Caracas.
“This can’t stay like this, officials who keep disappearing, detaining people arbitrarily have to pay“he stressed.
Likewise, he indicated that next Thursday he hopes to be received by the president of the Criminal Judicial Circuit of Caracas, John Parody, to address this situation, after a habeas corpus appeal was introduced in court on Monday.
The writ of habeas corpus is in article 27 of the Constitution and was conceived as “the most immediate guarantee for the protection of freedom and personal security,” recalls the NGO Acceso a la Justicia on its website.
On Sunday, representatives of the National Trade Union Coalition said in a video posted on their social networks that they had gone to several detention centers and were denied information about Ramírez’s whereabouts.
The NGO Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners (Clipp) then explained that, according to testimonies from colleagues and relatives, Ramírez “would have been detained after participating in a protest in front of the Ministry of Transportation, in Caracas.”
After the capture of Nicolás Maduro in January by the United States, groups of trade unionists have led numerous demonstrations to demand labor demands in the face of the loss of purchasing power with a minimum wage of 130 bolivars, equivalent to 14 cents per month.
