Caracas, Venezuela — A few dozen people demonstrated on Monday Venezuelan The capital remembers the woman who died over the weekend, just days after learning that her son had died in state custody nine months earlier.
The protesters, mostly college students, briefly blocked a highway Caracas Because he blamed the Venezuelan government for the deaths of Víctor Hugo Cuervo, whose detention was considered politically motivated, and his elderly mother, Carmen Navas. As the students were raising slogans, they also held a big banner with Nawas’s photo.
Student leader Miguel Ángel Suárez said of the deaths, “What excites Venezuelans, among Venezuelan youth, is anger.”
Navas, 82, died 10 days after Venezuela’s prison agency announced in a statement that Cuervo died after being hospitalized in custody in July. The government withheld information even when Navas sought proof of survival as he visited detention centers, courts, and government agencies in search of the whereabouts of Quero, who had been detained since January 2025.
Navas, a 51-year-old salesman, died of “acute respiratory failure due to pulmonary thromboembolism” 10 days after being taken to hospital for a gastrointestinal problem, the government statement said. It clarified that Navas’ relatives were not informed of his death because he failed to provide contact information.
The case immediately sparked outrage from human rights organizations, members of the Venezuelan political opposition, and relatives of others political prisoners.
“They didn’t die; they were killed!” The protesters raised slogans of Monday. “Justice for Carmen!”
Venezuelan prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal estimates that more than 400 people are currently detained in the country for political reasons.
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