Berliner Tageblatt - Venezuela admits death of political prisoner in custody nearly one year later

Victor Hugo Quero Navas, 51, was arrested in January 2025 on terrorism charges, a charge regularly used to lock up dissidents under ousted socialist president Nicolas Maduro.

The ministry said that "after examining his (Quero's) file," it could confirm that he died on July 24, 2025 of "acute respiratory failure secondary to pulmonary thromboembolism" in a military hospital in Caracas.

His mother Carmen Navas had searched tirelessly for him during his detention but failed to confirm his whereabouts.

The ministry claimed that while in custody, Quero had given no information about family members and no relative had formally requested a visit.

The director of Venezuela's leading rights NGO Foro Penal called the claim "outrageous," accusing the authorities of deliberately keeping Navas in the dark, months after her son had died.

On Thursday, the penitentiary service took Navas to a patch of bare ground in a Caracas cemetery, marked by a few stones and an iron sheet inscribed with her son's name.

After laying a bouquet of flowers on the grave, she requested a DNA test to confirm the identity of the body.

Quero was hospitalized ten days before his death, "after presenting with upper gastrointestinal bleeding and acute febrile syndrome," the government said.

It added that he was buried on July 30, 2025 "in compliance with legal protocols."

Venezuela's new ombudswoman, Eglee Gonzalez, urged an investigation into Quero's death.

Since 2014, 19 political prisoners have died in custody, according to Foro Penal.

Many Venezuelan families spent months going from prison to prison seeking information about the whereabouts of arrested loved ones.

Despite the adoption of an amnesty for political prisoners in February, a month after Maduro's ouster by the United States, hundreds remain behind bars, according to rights groups.

Concern had grown for Quero after he was excluded from the list of prisoners eligible for the amnesty promoted by interim president Delcy Rodriguez.

P.Anderson--BTB