Daniel Lozano

Updated Tuesday, February 13, 2024-02:43

  • Venezuela Chavismo detains the Hispanic-Venezuelan Rocío San Miguel, a relevant figure of civil society

  • Venezuela The four Spanish prisoners of Nicolás Maduro

Five relatives of Rocío San Miguel,

a relevant figure of Venezuelan civil society who was illegally detained last Friday, are also missing after being captured by revolutionary agents. Among them,

Miranda San Miguel stands out,

daughter of the renowned human rights activist, who like her mother has

Spanish nationality

and who also

lives in Madrid.

Miranda, who

was enjoying a vacation in

Venezuela

after graduating in Journalism in

Europe,

was accompanying her mother on Friday when she was captured by agents from the

General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM)

at the

Maiquetía international airport.

At that moment, the young woman was free and returned to her home.

According to what one of her relatives told Venezuelan journalist

César Miguel Rondón,

Miranda

was called on Saturday to go to the airport

to pick up her suitcases. Nothing else is known about her since then, although another of her aunts managed to see her from afar at the airport facilities of this military body.

"She was crying," said her aunt.

Minutes later, the one who fell into the

agents'

trap was her father,

Víctor Díaz Paruta, a retired

Air Force

colonel ,

who went to the airport to pick up his daughter. Separated from San Miguel for more than a decade, both maintain a very distant relationship.

The family story is terrifying. One of Miranda's aunts

remained for two hours in front of her interrogator

in a small dark room. During that time she was questioned again and again about alleged accomplices of her sister-in-law, with whom she has no ties.

After the forced disappearance of father and daughter, those who were detained are

Miguel Ángel and Alberto San Miguel,

brothers of the president of the

NGO Citizen Control for Security, Defense and the National Armed Forces. They went to look for them at their house, where another relative,

Alejandro González Canales

, was also detained .

"We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Rocío San Miguel and her family, arbitrarily detained in Venezuela," warned

Agnes Callamard,

general secretary of

Amnesty International (AI) yesterday.

The United Nations

has repeatedly denounced the pattern followed by the revolution against the families of prisoners, especially the military, who are harassed, persecuted and even imprisoned. Several emblematic cases mark the reports of human rights organizations. This practice is called

sippenhaft,

which the Nazis already used to extend to family members the punishment they imposed on the "enemies" of the regime.