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00:00Venezuelan opposition parties and NGOs have declined the arrests of a prominent press freedom activist and a well-known
00:05opposition figure among others ahead of planned protest against Friday's
00:10inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro for his third term in power.
00:17Daily life is running its course in Caracas,
00:20but on Friday the Venezuelan opposition hopes to see thousands of demonstrators take to the streets.
00:26It doesn't recognize Nicolas Maduro's win in the July elections,
00:32which garnered both domestic and international criticism.
00:3728 people were killed and over 2,000 were arrested in a crackdown on protests after Maduro declared victory,
00:45while the opposition's Edmundo González Urrutia claimed a landslide win.
00:52Uncertainty now looms over the swearing-in ceremony on Friday.
00:57If it's Maduro, I don't care, because it's something we already suspected, of course.
01:03But if Edmundo is sworn in, well, that's fine.
01:07I mean, both things don't really matter to me, because in this situation you have to be very neutral.
01:15Over 7 million of Venezuela's 30 million citizens have fled since Maduro took over from Hugo Chávez in 2013.
01:24Most refugees and migrants go to Colombia, which borders the country to the west, as well as other South American countries.
01:34A Dallas Borrego moved to Chile eight years ago and opened a restaurant.
01:42This time it was possible to show what the government has been doing in my country for many years.
01:48They castrated us, silenced us, made us leave.
01:52What do I have? Faith, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of anguish.
01:57But this time, I feel it's going to be different.
02:03Many of Venezuela's neighbours recognise the opposition candidate as the legitimate president-elect,
02:09as do the United States and the European Union.
02:14There are fears that Maduro's third term could trigger a new wave of mass migration.
02:22So the son of the opposition leader, Edmundo González, kidnapped.
02:26That's after González had a meeting with Joe Biden in Washington.
02:31And the other issue is the director of the press freedom NGO Espacio PĂşblico, Carlos Correa,
02:37has been arrested too, Tuesday afternoon by hooded officials.
02:41Amnesty International has been highlighting this case and others.
02:45Valentina Ballesta is the deputy director of research for the Americas at Amnesty.
02:50She joins us now live.
02:52A very good evening to you.
02:53This case of Carlos Correa, how alarming is it in your opinion?
02:59Well, thank you for the invitation, first of all.
03:02And for Amnesty International, our biggest concern here is how this case and this arbitrary detention
03:09that we suspect is an arbitrary detention, although right now we don't know his whereabouts,
03:14is based on solid research we have concluded, we have carried out in the last seven to eight years,
03:22showing how politically motivated arbitrary detentions are used to silence any form of criticism of dissent.
03:30And right now, what we are seeing with Carlos Correa is the consolidation of a pattern
03:36in which human rights offenders are seen as opposition to the government,
03:42which wouldn't have to be the case in any other situation.
03:47Human rights defenders fight and have the right, of course, to defend others' rights.
03:53So it's alarming.
03:55It's joining, unfortunately, at least of at least four other human rights defenders.
04:01And now we are obviously worried about the risk he's facing of being submitted or subjected to
04:09ill-treatment or torture and also to be charged of counts of terrorism or other arbitrary or
04:19with highly arbitrariness behind charges.
04:23What you've described is disturbing.
04:24The details about how he was arrested, too, by hooded officials, again,
04:29gives a certain image of things that really are incredibly dangerous and threatening.
04:35Could you give us more of an idea of what Carlos Correa's work has been like?
04:39How has he offended the Maduro regime?
04:44Yeah, that's an excellent question, because Carlos Correa is one of the highest known
04:49or high profile human rights offenders in the country.
04:52I'm talking about a person who has devoted his life to fight for freedom of expression.
04:58He has the lead, led the Espacio PĂşblico, as you mentioned, this NGO,
05:04which with over 20 years of work, denouncing, reporting and also advising victims of human rights
05:15violations such as journalists or TV or radio stations that had been closed.
05:23So this is a person who has devoted his whole life to fight for others to be able to express themselves.
05:32So right now, obviously, this sets the tone on how the government intends to move forward in the next few days.
05:39There was the attempt back in 2019 to get Nicolás Maduro out of power.
05:44Juan Guaido, of course, was the leader of that.
05:47And now, of course, he was unable to carry out that movement to get Maduro away from power.
05:53How do you explain Nicolás Maduro still being in power, still being reelected?
05:58Well, right now, it is not a matter of the elections.
06:02At the moment, we are deeply concerned on the human rights situation.
06:06Of course, the elections right now also have been contested widely, not only by Venezuelans,
06:12but also outside of the country.
06:15So I don't think it is the same scenario that happened in Venezuela in 2019.
06:21However, what is still ongoing and is still concerning is how rooted is the arbitrariness
06:29and how deep the mechanisms are still in place that are making this possible,
06:37which is silencing and repressing any form of dissent,
06:42even the one that is perceived that is not actually a threat to the power.
06:46So we are talking here about enforced disappearances.
06:50We are talking about torture.
06:51We are talking about torture against adolescents and minors and children.
06:56And right now, yeah, human rights defenders are also enlisted in this.
07:04Yeah, through what they are doing now, they are consolidating this policy of repression.
07:11And yeah, the international community should be treating this as a human rights crisis,
07:16more than a political crisis.
07:18Valentina, thank you very much for giving us your insights
07:21into these disturbing cases in Venezuela.
07:23Valentina Ballester is the Deputy Director of Research for the Americas at Amnesty International.
07:28Thank you for joining us. Thank you for your time.
07:30And of course, we will continue to watch for developments on this story.
07:33Valentina, once again, thank you very much indeed.