Eduardo Torres is a human rights defender, lawyer and member of the Venezuelan Education-Action Program on Human Rights (Provea)’s legal enforcement team. Eduardo was forcibly disappeared on Friday, 9 May 2025 in the afternoon, likely due to his work as a human rights activist. On 13 May 2025, after being pressured by civil society, the Attorney General Tarek William Saab acknowledged on Instagram that Eduardo Torres was under the custody of the Venezuelan State. Five days later, the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) confirmed that Eduardo Torres is being held in the prison El Helicoide.
Other human rights defenders are also being held at this same detention center because of their work and activism. This includes Javier Tarazona, detained since 2 July 2021; Rocío San Miguel, detained on 9 February 2024; Carlos Julio Rojas, detained since 15 April 2024; and Kennedy Tejeda, detained on 2 August 2024. All of them are beneficiary of precautionary protection measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). It is the responsibility of the Venezuelan State to guarantee their life and integrity.
These arbitrary detentions – usually preceded by enforced disappearances – are taking place in the context of an intensification of harassment and persecution by the Venezuelan State towards human rights defenders as an attempt by the Venezuelan government to silence the work of civil society in the aftermath of the elections of 28 July 2024. Anyone perceived as an opponent or holding an alternative narrative to the official one faces public persecution.
Currently, almost half of Venezuelan organisations report difficulties in working freely. Their activities are severely constrained due to the implementation of restrictive laws and stigmatising rhetoric from high-level authorities against NGOs that foster a pervasive fear of detention and public ostracism. Without a significant shift and reversal in state policies, the complete closure of civic space is imminent, threatening the existence of half or more of the civil society sector.
These repressive measures go against a vast range of recommendations from all UN human rights bodies, pointing to the Venezuelan authorities’ unwillingness to abide by international human rights law. Notably, some of these recommendations were voluntarily accepted by Venezuela two years ago during the Universal Periodic Review. The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela have also declared that the widespread and systematic use of enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and torture, against the civilian population in Venezuela amount to crimes against humanity.
Please take action on the right side of this page and send an email to the Permanent Missions of Venezuela to the United Nations in Geneva and New York calling on them to immediately and unconditionally release Eduardo Torres, Javier Tarazona, Rocío San Miguel, Carlos Julio Rojas and Kennedy Tejeda, and all those arbitrarily detained in Venezuela, and to guarantee these individuals’ right to life, physical integrity and a fair trial.