After many months of trying to get a representative of the Venezuelan State to attend to her case, Mrs. Carmen Teresa Navas was received by the Ombudsman, Eglée González Lobato, who promised to accompany her in the search for her son, who disappeared after being arrested in January 2025.
“This Ombudsman’s Office has already received Ms. Navas’s case and we want to express to her that institutionally we are going to activate mechanisms and ways so that there is a verifiable response so that the State can attend to her, so that her uncertainty decreases and her quality of life does not deteriorate,” said the new person in charge of the Ombudsman’s Office.
“Thank you for that support, let’s hope that from now on there will be positive responses to find my son,” said Mrs. Navas at the end of the meeting with the defender.
Víctor Hugo Quero Navas, 51, disappeared on January 1, 2025 when he was arbitrarily detained in Caracas. Since that moment his mother and none of his relatives have heard from him.
Companions released from prison indicated that Quero suffered from a serious spinal condition, required a special diet and was hospitalized with serum before being transferred from El Rodeo I around October 2025.
Penal Forum counts 11 missing people
The stories of the disappeared that seem so characteristic of the dictatorships of the late 20th century in the Latin American Southern Cone are also a reality in Venezuela. The non-governmental organization Foro Penal updated its registry of political prisoners in Venezuela. As of March 2, the total amounts to 526 people; of them, 11 whose whereabouts remain unknown, according to the report spread on social networks.
The entity, dedicated to the defense of human rights, broke down the figures by gender, occupation and age. Among those detained, 470 are men and 56 are women. Regarding occupation, 353 are civilians and 173 are military.
