In front of Caracas prisons… Venezuelan families search for missing persons who were “forcibly disappeared”

After an arduous trip that took about 10 hours by bus through the roads of Venezuela, Carolina Carrizo arrived in the capital, Caracas. Searching for her missing husband, Omar Torres, 53 years old. Once she arrived, she found no shelter, so she made herself a makeshift mattress from discarded sofa cushions and slept in the open in front of the detention center known as “Zona 7.”

Carrizo recounts that 30 police officers stormed the family home in western Venezuela about two months ago, during a search for weapons, and arrested her husband, a well-known political activist. Since that day, the authorities have not officially acknowledged his arrest, and the family has not received any information about his fate or where he is being held.

Since her arrival in Caracas two weeks ago, Carrizo has been spending the night outside the Zona 7 prison, even though she does not know if her husband is being held in this prison at all. However, she had no other choice but to wait and hope.

Political developments

This suffering came in light of remarkable political developments, as after the administration of US President Donald Trump arrested Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the interim government in the country began to receive widespread media coverage due to its announcement of the release of dozens of political prisoners.

Human rights organizations confirm that these people were arbitrarily detained, and the limited releases have brought to light an old and recurring phenomenon in Venezuela, which is the disappearance of people after their arrest, often for political reasons.

Trump’s statements, in which he praised what he described as the tolerance of acting President Delcy Rodriguez, raised high hopes among the families of the missing, hoping that the rapprochement between Washington and Caracas would lead to revealing the fate of dozens of disappeared people and their release.

Carrizo says angrily: “We are all here outside prison because of what Trump did. Now all I want is my husband back.”

Unknown places

Carrizo was not alone in this harsh wait. The streets surrounding the “Zona 7” prison were filled with mothers and wives who came from various parts of Venezuela, and they set up their tents near dozens of policemen equipped with riot control equipment.

Although the police confirm that the prison is empty of detainees, families say they hear screaming sounds coming from inside.

Among them is Betsy Orellana, who is searching for her son, Rodolfo José Rodríguez Orellana, a former police officer sentenced to 24 years in prison for participating in a plot to overthrow the government. Oriana says that her son has been missing since last August, expressing her conviction that “Trump is the one who will get them out.”

According to the non-governmental human rights organization Four Penal, which is considered one of the most prominent bodies concerned with documenting politically motivated arrests, the whereabouts of at least 66 prisoners in Venezuela are still unknown. Among them are about 30 people who participated in the attempted “invasion of Venezuela” in 2020, known as “Operation Gideon,” a plan to kill or kidnap Maduro and send him to the United States.

This attempt, planned by a former American Special Forces soldier, failed miserably, as eight of the participants were killed, while the rest were arrested, and their fate remains unknown since their transfer last August. The Venezuelan government has not issued any response to inquiries related to these issues.

Enforced disappearance

Enforced disappearance is an ancient practice dating back decades, used by dictatorial regimes in Latin America as a tool to suppress opponents, whether they are students, activists, or even foreigners. This method is classified as a flagrant violation of international law and a crime against humanity, given the authorities’ failure to disclose the location of any person in their custody, as some people in Venezuela have been missing for nearly a year.

Venezuelan law stipulates that detainees must be brought to justice within 48 hours of their arrest, but human rights activists confirm that this provision is often neglected, especially in cases of enforced disappearance, where families do not even know where their children are being held.

The Venezuelan government launched a massive campaign of repression following the presidential elections that took place in July 2024, with the aim of silencing the opposition, after Maduro announced his victory in the elections, despite the results of the vote counting indicating the opposite. According to the “For Penal” organization, about 800 people are still detained as political prisoners, despite the recent release of 154 people.

Violations

Human rights experts confirm that the disappearance of prisoners represents the most serious form of violations, especially in countries that witness repeated violations, because detainees are completely outside the protection of the law, and families find it extremely difficult to hire lawyers in cases that are not officially recognized by the authorities, which increases the exposure of the disappeared to danger.

Amnesty International indicated in a report last year that there was a significant increase in cases of enforced disappearance in Venezuela after the 2024 elections, confirming that some people disappear for hours, days, weeks, or even months.

Clara del Campo, head of South American campaigns at Amnesty International, said that families are “literally knocking on prison doors” searching for their children, but the guards deny their presence, considering that this reflects what she described as the “ingenuity” of repressive regimes in devising new means to practice cruelty and punish those they consider to be real or even imaginary opponents.

anxiety

For its part, the family of political activist Victor Borges, 39 years old, is still in a state of anxiety since his disappearance on November 25. “It was as if the earth had swallowed him,” says his ex-wife, Wesley Bello, 26.

Eyewitnesses reported that cars bearing the emblems of the Bolivarian National Police arrived at Borges’ workplace, a prestigious private school where he worked as an animal supervisor at the petting zoo, and took him to an unknown destination.

His family confirms that they visited countless government agencies, prisons, hospitals, police stations, and even morgues, and every time the response was the same: “There is no person with that name.”

As time passed, Bello began to think about the possibility that Borges would never return to her or his five children. “One day I will tell them what a great father they had,” she says with tearful eyes. About the New York Times

. Trump’s praise of what he described as the acting president’s tolerance raised hopes for the families of the missing.

. Amnesty International confirmed an increase in enforced disappearances in Venezuela after the 2024 elections.

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“The Disappeared”

The use of the term “disappeared” dates back to the 1970s in Argentina, when the then military dictatorship kidnapped nearly 30,000 people, many of whom were tortured, and some were thrown from planes into the sea.

For decades, this term has been associated with the idea that a person is missing and often dead, but recent years have seen a change in meaning, as in countries such as Nicaragua it is believed that the disappeared are still alive, but are being held secretly without official records. Although dozens of missing persons have recently been released in Nicaragua, the fate of nine people remains unknown, according to prisoner monitoring organizations.

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Psychological torture for families

Marylis Rodriguez traveled to Caracas in search of her 29-year-old son. From the source

Human Rights Watch researcher Martina Rabideau said that enforced disappearance is always used as a means, and that this method does not only aim to break the detained person, but also to destroy his family and torture him psychologically, noting that these practices are sometimes carried out out of revenge against political opponents.

Rabideau explained that enforced disappearances usually take one of two types: the first involves short-term detention lasting a few days, while the second includes detaining prominent activists for long periods in secret places, with them completely isolated from the outside world.

In this context, Marylis Rodriguez, 58 years old, traveled a distance of approximately 200 kilometers from the city of Acarigua to the capital, Caracas, in search of her son, Carlos Jose Rodriguez (29 years old). She reported that the police arrested her son from his home on September 23, 2025, allegedly for his involvement in selling the dollar illegally on the black market. Rodriguez said that her son was arrested for the purpose of investigation only, noting that they told her that they wanted to ask him about something, but he has not returned since then, and the family has not received any information about him for about four months. She confirmed that her son was working in selling imported goods, and was not involved in any political activity.

She added that Carlos became a father for the first time after his arrest, as his son was born without being able to see him until now.

The family stated that they searched for Carlos in at least five prisons in Caracas, and asked about him in all police stations in Acarigua, to no avail.

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A dispute with police officers

Leomars searches for her father in a notorious prison. From the source

Leomaris Prado traveled eight hours by bus from the state of Guarico to the “El Heliquidi” prison in Caracas, known for its bad reputation as a detention and torture center, in search of her father, Leonardo Prado, a mechanic who had been missing since last December 28. She stated that her father was arrested at a checkpoint, according to what the family was informed of. Leomaris confirmed that her father was not a political activist, but pointed out that he had recently entered into a dispute with neighbors who worked as police officers, which prompted the family to wonder whether this dispute was a reason for his arrest.

Leomaris said: “I am just here to make sure that my father is still alive, and I want to know where he is now, and why he was arrested, and I demand that they provide proof of that.”