The Venezuelan NGO Provea recalled this Saturday that the director of the Fundaredes organization, Javier Tarazona, whom Amnesty International classified as a “prisoner of conscience”, spent Christmas in jail as a result of “arbitrary detention and an unfair trial.”
“Today, December 25, Javier Tarazona is serving 176 days in prison. He spent Christmas behind bars as a result of an arbitrary arrest and an unfair trial. We demand his full freedom, defending human rights is not a crime,” Provea said on his Twitter account.
Likewise, Fundaredes indicated on the social network that due to Tarazona’s prison conditions, his health has deteriorated in recent days.
“He has underlying diseases diagnosed prior to his arrest, one of the high blood pressure,” he said.
On December 21, Amnesty International called for the release of Tarazona and described him as a “prisoner of conscience for having been arbitrarily detained for his work defending human rights” in Venezuela.
“His health has seriously deteriorated due to lack of medical treatment,” the organization said.
On December 9, the Venezuelan Justice confirmed the pass to the trial of Tarazona, the main voice of denunciation of the conflict that began last March between the Armed Forces and dissidents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the border state of Apure.
Likewise, the brother of the director of the NGO, Rafael Tarazona, and Fundaredes activist Omar de Dios García will go to trial, although neither of them is currently in prison.
