Fifteen days before Christmas, Venezuelan politician and campaigner Jesus Armas was bundled into a vehicle by several masked men at about 9 p.m. in Caracas after visiting a coffee shop.
Almost 12 weeks later, his family, friends, and fellow campaigners are still calling for his release—or even information about his well-being.
During this time, the socialist regime in the oil-rich South American country clamped down on opposition with renewed vigor after facing internal and external condemnation of Maduro and his party.
Human rights groups, both within Venezuela and abroad, have reported a sharp increase in the repression of dissent and opposition following the hotly disputed July election.
In the immediate aftermath of the vote, the regime arrested more than 2,000 protesters, drawing international condemnation.
The repression and arbitrary arrests continue, which is how Armas came to be taken on Dec. 10.
After being snatched off the streets of the capital, he was whisked away to a clandestine detention center, with none of his family or friends knowing where he was for a week, his lawyer Genesis Davila told The Epoch Times.
“After seven days he was taken to a prison where his girlfriend was able to speak to him, which is when he told her he had been tortured by having a plastic bag put over his head and being tied to a chair,” Davila said.
He also appeared in a closed court via video link while in detention, where he was charged with unspecified offenses. Davila says his legal team has been unable to access the court docket for the proceeding and does not know exactly what those charges are.
Armas, an experienced campaigner who studied in Britain and has ties to organizations in the United States, including the McCain Institute and the Obama Foundation, remains incarcerated in El Helicoide, a notorious prison in Caracas, cut off from friends and family.
Almost three months later, none of Armas’ family, friends, or legal representatives have seen him.
Speaking to The Epoch Times, his friend Alexandra Panzarelli, a professor of political science at the New School for Social Research in New York City, said that in the days before Armas was taken she pleaded with him to come and join her in the United States for the sake of his safety.
“Last time we spoke, I honestly begged Jesus to come stay with me here for a while. But, being an only child. He wanted to be with his parents and he wanted to be with his girlfriend, Sairam,” Panzarelli said. “But most importantly, he’s a politician, and he knew that he has this duty of being there with his people and with the people that trust him.”
Panzarelli says she believes Armas was specifically targeted by the regime due to his political skills in mobilizing people in the low-income areas of Caracas.
His abduction came amid political upheaval in Venezuela, which has been under the control of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela since 2007. First under Hugo Chávez, then his successor and current president, Nicolas Maduro, who took office in 2013.
Unlike in previous Venezuelan presidential elections, government authorities have not published vote counts. However, a coalition of opposition parties released tally sheets from more than 80 percent of the nation’s electronic voting machines, showing that opposition candidate Edmundo González received twice as many votes as Maduro.
The result and Maduro’s subsequent inauguration have not been recognized by numerous nations and international bodies, including the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations.
Describing the current state of the Maduro regime’s hold on power, Davila said, “The regime has been weakened after the election because they have lost legitimacy, but this [has] made them more violent and repressive. It is like a wounded animal that has become more dangerous as it is threatened.”
Panzarelli said that although the election had been a blow to the regime, there currently seemed to be little chance of a change in power in Caracas, saying the regime had “dodged a bullet.”
“I think that we were very close this last time, but I don’t see the possibility right now of the regime ending and this point,” she said. “I think that they’ve regained stability, and a lot of the people that were fighting against them are now in exile or in prison.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on social media platform X: “Today, pursuant to @POTUS directive, I am providing foreign policy guidance to terminate all Biden-era oil and gas licenses that have shamefully bankrolled the illegitimate Maduro regime.”
Washington has also issued a reward of up to $25 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Maduro and Venezuelan Minister of Interior, Justice, and Peace Diosdado Cabello.
“In the first month after the election, authorities carried out over 2,000 arrests, according to official figures, adding to the hundreds already arbitrarily detained since before 28 July. All these arrests and ongoing detentions are presumed to be arbitrary and part of the Maduro government’s longstanding policy of repression against any perception of dissent,” the human rights organization stated in a report published in November last year.
The UN report also uncovered an intensification of harassment, criminalization, and other restrictions on the work of human rights organizations, journalists, and others.
“Taking into account both the patterns of action and the State policy outlined in previous reports, as well as the profile of the victims, and public statements by senior state representatives, the mission has reasonable grounds to believe that the crime of persecution on political grounds has been committed during the timeframe covered by its mandate,” the report stated.
Panzarelli said she hopes Armas and all the other political prisoners are released.
“I really pray for that, not a religious person, but I really hope that they get released,” Panzarelli said. “I also think, and I think this is a great opportunity to remind people overseas, Venezuelans in exile, and also prominent politicians, leaders, to keep their attention on Venezuela. This is something that is not over.”
