The Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize 2025, Maria Corina Machado, warned this Wednesday that in the last few hours it has received information about “direct” and “systematic” threats of “extrajudicial execution” against political prisoners held in the prison of The Rodeo, located in the state Miranda (north, close to Caracas).
In his X account, Machado assured that these threats are “issued by officials of the repressive organs of the regime and constitute crimes against humanity, serious violations of international humanitarian law and an imminent risk to the lives of people who today are held hostage by the State.”
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“This is direct, repeated intimidation directed at totally defenseless people, deprived of liberty and in state custody,” stated the former deputy, who held the Venezuelan Government responsible for “any physical and psychological harm that occurs from these threats.”
In this context, the opponent demanded “immediate action” from international human rights organizations, “including,” he said, “protection and verification mechanisms to prevent extrajudicial executions.”
Furthermore, he urged the “democratic and allied governments”, without mentioning any, to “activate urgent measures of diplomatic pressure, international monitoring and formal warnings to dissuade the regime from carrying out these threats.”
“We request immediate protection for political prisoners, access to independent observers and effective guarantees of life and personal integrity. “There are lives at risk today,” Machado warned.
This week, the NGO Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP) reported that, according to testimonies from family members and political prisoners, the guards of El Rodeo I have threatened the detainees with using them as “human shields” in the case “of a possible intervention by the United States in Venezuela.”
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“It is important to highlight that the systematic use of fear and intimidation as control mechanisms deepens the real risk to the physical and mental integrity of people deprived of liberty.“, pointed out the NGO.
These complaints occur in a context of growing tension due to the air-naval presence ordered by Donald Trump in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific, where he has attacked more than 30 boats supposedly linked to drug trafficking, a deployment that the Government of Nicolás Maduro considers a “threat” of invasion and an attempt to promote a change of regime.
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