Venezuela: Over 80 NGOs demand immediate release of human rights defender Carlos Correa

Espacio Público and the undersigned organisations demand the immediate release of Carlos Correa, director of the NGO Espacio Público, who was intercepted by people dressed in black, hooded, and taken to an unknown destination on 7 January at around 5:00 p.m. in the centre of Caracas. This mechanism has previously been used by State security forces to arbitrarily detain and subject to enforced disappearance human rights defenders, those involved in politics or who may be critical of the government of Nicolás Maduro.

Carlos Correa is the director of the organisation Espacio Público, a journalist and human rights defender with more than 20 years of experience in the promotion and defence of human rights and freedom of expression in Venezuela. He is also a professor-researcher at the Human Rights Centre of the Andrés Bello Catholic University. After his arrest, he has not communicated with his family or trusted lawyers, a human right and also a guarantee of due process in the case of arrests established in the Organic Code of Criminal Procedure.

Relatives and colleagues of Carlos Correa have asked several detention centres about the whereabouts of the defender, but the authorities have denied that he is in those centres. We recall that denying information implies collaboration in the consolidation of an enforced disappearance and that the officials involved are responsible before the law.

We warn that this arbitrary detention and forced disappearance is taking place in the context of an intensification of harassment and persecution by the Venezuelan State towards all actors who represent the defence of civil and political liberties in the country. On 15 August, the ‘Law for the control, regularisation, operation and financing of non-governmental organisations and non-profit social organisations’ was approved, a regulation that violates the principles of autonomy and independence inherent to the right of association, and under the assumption that non-governmental and non-profit initiatives are ‘enemies of the homeland’, that they use ‘illicit funds’ to ‘finance terrorism’.

A few months ago, Nicolás Maduro mentioned Carlos Correa in a speech broadcast by the national media, in which he said he remembered him for his work with the Fe y Alegría radio broadcasting network. Moreover, Correa and the organisation Espacio Público have been mentioned by Diosdado Cabello on his television programme, in a persecution of his work defending freedom of expression.

Family members explain that Correa has health conditions that require immediate treatment, and that the State is responsible for guaranteeing access to the medicines he needs to maintain his physical condition. Furthermore, the State and public officials in charge of him are responsible for the psychological integrity of Carlos Correa and all those arbitrarily detained and disappeared.

The forced disappearance of Carlos Correa is part of the crime of persecution for political reasons and is an attempt by the Venezuelan government to silence the work of civil society, which demands respect for civil and political human rights, especially in the context of the crisis generated by the lack of transparency of public bodies in the context of the elections of 28 July 2024.

We demand that the Venezuelan State:

• Reveal the whereabouts of Carlos Correa, human rights defender, journalist and researcher.
• Safeguard the physical and psychological integrity of Carlos Correa, guaranteeing his access to ongoing medical treatment that he needs to maintain.
• Allow Carlos Correa to communicate with his family and trusted lawyers, in compliance with his legal obligations and with respect for the right to due process.
• Grant Carlos Correa’s full and immediate release.

Signed:

1. Laboratorio de Paz
2. A. C. Jóvenes y Desarrollo
3. Acceso a la Justicia
4. Acción Ciudadana Contra el SIDA (ACCSI)
5. AlertaVenezuela
6. Aula Abierta
7. Asociación Civil Mujeres en Línea
8. Asociación Movimiento Vinotinto
9. Aula Abierta
10. Caleidoscopio Humano
11. Cátedra de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado
12. Cecodap
13. Cento por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional – CEJIL
14. Centro de Acción y Defensa por los Derechos Humanos (CADEF)
15. Centro de Derechos Humanos – UCAB
16. Centro para los Defensores y la Justicia
17. Cepaz – Centro de Justicia y Paz
18. CIVICUS
19. Clima21
20. Comisión de DDHH de la Federación Venezolana de Colegios de Abogados del estado Apure
21. Comisión de la Mujer de la Universidad de los Andes
22. Comisión para los Derechos Humanos del Estado Zulia
23. Consorven
24. Cubalex
25. Defiende Venezuela
26. Edgar Enrique Antunez
27. Expresidenta de la CIDH y ex Canciller de Chile, Antonia Urrejola
28. Ex-Relator para la Libertad de Expresion CIDH Director del Centro de Derechos Humanos y Derecho Internacional
29. Humanitario. American University, Eduardo Bertoni
30. Equalia
31. Espacio Público
32. EXCUBITUS Derechos Humanos en Educación
33. Expresión Libre
34. Feminismoinc
35. FIDH (Federación Internacional por los Derechos Humanos), en el marco del Observatorio para la Protección de los
36. Defensores de Derechos Humanos.
37. Freedom House
38. Fundación Aguaclara
39. Fundación Marcelino Pan y Vino
40. FundaRedes
41. Fundatransvida
42. Fundehullan
43. Grupo de Reflexión de Excarcelados Politicos de Nicaragua (GREX)
44. Grupo Interdisciplinario Emergencia Humanitaria en Agua
45. Guadalupe González González
46. IHR LEGAL
47. Impulsa Latinoamérica
48. Instituto de Investigaciones de la Información y de la Comunicación IDICI UCAB
49. International Service for Human Rights
50. Javier Larrondo, presidente de Prisoners Dedenders
51. Laboratorio de Paz
52. Lateral LAB
53. Mesa de Diálogo de la Juventud Cubana
54. Monitor Social AC
55. Movimiento SOMOS
56. Observatorio de Derechos Humanos Universidad de Los Andes
57. Observatorio de Derechos LGBTIQ+ de Venezuela
58. Observatorio de Juventudes Venezuela
59. Observatorio de Violencias LGBTIQ+
60. Observatorio Global de Comunicación y Democracia
61. Observatorio Venezolano de Conflictividad Social (OVCS)
62. Observatorio Venezolano de Prisiones
63. Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia
64. Oficina de Washington para Asuntos Latinoamericanos (WOLA)
65. Organización Mundial Contra la Tortura (OMCT), en el marco del Observatorio para la Protección de los Defensores de
66. Derechos Humanos.
67. Prepara Familia
68. Prisoners Defenders
69. Programa de Promoción de los derechos indígenas en Venezuela “Wayamoutheri“
70. Programa Venezolano de Educación Acción en Derechos Humanos (Provea)
71. PROMEDEHUM
72. PROVEA (Programa Venezolano Educación Acción en Derechos Humanos)
73. Proyecto RUTA
74. Odevida, Capitulo Venezuela
75. Red de Activistas Ciudadanos por los Derechos Humanos (Redac)
76. Red por los derechos humanos de Niños, Niñas y Adolescentes (Redhnna)
77. Resonalia
78. Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
79. SABANA
80. SINERGIA, Red Venezolana de Organizaciones de Sociedad Civil
81. Un Mundo Sin Mordaza
82. Unidad de Defensa Jurídica (UDJ)
83. Unión Afirmativa
84. Unión de Presas y Presos Políticos Nicaragüenses (UPPN)
85. Voces de la Memoria INC
86. Voluntarios Con Vzla
87. UPPN, Nicaragua, Yaritzha Rostrán Mairena