{"id":426382,"date":"2024-12-02T17:10:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T17:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=426382"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Venezuelans-protest-for-release-of-prisoners-held-in-post-election-unrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Venezuelans-protest-for-release-of-prisoners-held-in-post-election-unrest\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuelans protest for release of prisoners held in post-election unrest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dozens of Venezuelans took to the streets in Caracas on Sunday calling for the release of prisoners detained in protests against the disputed reelection of President Nicolas Maduro.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m tired of living in a country with such a dictatorship, I want to be free,&#8221; said one protester, who asked not to be named due to worries of being imprisoned herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The rally was called by opposition politician Maria Corina Machado, who also urged\u00a0the International Criminal Court &#8212; which is already investigating alleged crimes against humanity in Venezuela &#8212; to press for the release of what NGO Foro Penal says are more than 1,900 &#8220;political prisoners.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Most of the detainees were arrested in protests that followed Maduro&#8217;s July election for a third consecutive six-year term, with his victory declared by state authorities seen as loyal to him. The opposition claimed the vote was fraudulent.<\/p>\n<p>Fearing arrest, Machado has been in hiding since the election, while opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia has fled to Spain.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Internationally, they have to take action,&#8221; a woman at Sunday&#8217;s protest told AFP. Her face was hidden by a mask marked by red lipstick, a symbol that represents the blood of the 28 people killed in the post-election unrest.<\/p>\n<p>Similar demonstrations were held in other cities around the world, including Washington, Madrid and Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n<p>The United States last week sanctioned 21 top Venezuelan security and cabinet officials, accusing them of involvement in a campaign of repression after Maduro&#8217;s reelection.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Washington and the G7 had earlier recognized opposition candidate Urrutia as the rightful winner of July&#8217;s vote, in a move that angered Caracas.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>mbj-jt\/arm\/bjt\/nro<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/ca39cca0a4c91577c6c8262ce05e8cdf.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>Protesters in Bogota, Colombia, hold a demonstration in solidarity with the protests in Caracas, Venezuela<\/p>\n<p>-Alejandro Martinez<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dozens of Venezuelans took to the streets in Caracas on Sunday calling for the release&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}