The Human Rights Committee of the Vente Venezuela (VV) party, led by opposition member María Corina Machado, reported this Thursday night on the arrest and subsequent release of seven people who were “in charge of the sound trucks.” used in an opposition mobilization in Caracas.
“People who would have been arbitrarily detained at the end of the peaceful demonstration on October 22, were later released, along with the vehicles,” he said in an X publication at 11:55 pm.
However, the committee denounced that the workers were stripped of audio equipment and tools used during the development of political activity.
“Providing a service and doing your job is not a crime. We will continue to denounce this situation until their belongings are returned and no one else is kidnapped for doing their job and expressing themselves freely,” the human rights organization concluded.
The retention or detention of people who provide services in opposition marches was frequent in 2024, when Machado and opposition activists denounced several impediments against the electoral campaign of the then candidate for the largest opposition coalition, Edmundo González Urrutia.
In July of that year, Venezuelan security forces arrested six people who were hired as transportation and sound operators for the penultimate González Urrutia campaign event, scheduled for the state of Zulia, as reported then by his political team in this region bordering Colombia.
Thousands of people came out this Thursday in Caracas and other states of Venezuela to demand presidential elections in 2027 and achieve a democratic transition with Machado in the Presidency.
The opposition led by Machado and González Urrutia has resumed mass protests after the capture of Nicolás Maduro and a brief pause due to the repression that both denounced after the 2024 presidential elections.
