“We want to request the collaboration of the Spanish Government before the Barbados agreements to reactivate negotiations for Spanish citizens detained in Venezuelan prisons, especially in our case of my daughter María Auxiliadora Delgado and my son-in-law, Juan Carlos Marrufo. We beg the government to take all necessary steps to achieve the release of these children who have already been detained for more than four years. God will reward all these efforts.” The desperate appeal is from Osman Delgado, father of the Spanish-Venezuelan prisoner María Auxiliadora, one of the four political prisoners with Spanish nationality, whose families are living these hours with anguish waiting for her release.
The government of Pedro Sánchez has not been part of the countries that have held the event in Barbados, where Norway served as sponsor with the support of Russia and the Netherlands, plus the fundamental presence of the United States. Latin American foreign ministers, such as the Colombian, also supported the agreements with their presence, in addition to France, with a starring role (Macron has offered to lead electoral observation in the presidential elections) that has particularly stung Spanish diplomacy.
The other Spanish prisoners are Ángela Expósito and Karen Hernández, as well as Jorge Alayeto. All of them are united by similar stories, from the torture suffered to the arbitrariness and injustice of their trials. Against Delgado, 47 years old and also the sister of a soldier, the cruelty that she and her husband, an Italian national, suffered a false release in October 2019 weighs: after 170 days with a freedom decree, they were finally released and They sent a taxi home, but Maduro’s feared Special Forces (FAES) detained them again to present them before another judge, who accused them of treason.
Expósito, like the others, was involved in the alleged 2018 drone attack and was sentenced to 24 years in prison for it. The Hispanic-Venezuelan was in charge of a foundation that rescued animals that were left without owners due to political reprisals.
Karen Hernández was involved in the failed Operation Gedeón, carried out by a group of rebel soldiers who tried to land in Venezuela from Colombia. She is accused of treason, rebellion and a series of other crimes.
The merchant Jorge Alayeto has been imprisoned since 2017, when he was detained and interrogated for hours in his own home to later be tortured. Chavismo accuses him of being an accomplice in Operation David, which was intended to attack a military barracks.
The four Spanish-Venezuelans are part of the large group of 273 political prisoners counted by the Penal Forum, which yesterday welcomed the release of the first six prisoners, but warned that in other releases the revolution abused the so-called “revolving doors”: the release of a group of prisoners, compensated in the following months with new arrests.
In his last appearance before the United Nations organizations, the Chavista prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, insisted that “Venezuela does not have political prisoners.” That is the “reason” why his release was not included in the drafting of the partial agreements in Barbados, although it is part of the fine print of what was secretly negotiated with Washington for months.