The revolving door effect is a term to describe the situation in which, while political prisoners are released, new imprisonments take place at the same time or within a few days, so that the number of political prisoners remains constant. The term was coined by Venezuelan activist Alfredo Romero, director of the NGO Foro Penal. [1] [2]
The term was coined by Venezuelan activist Alfredo Romero, director of the NGO Foro Penal, in his research as a guest of the Carr Center at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. [3]
The revolving door effect has been denounced on several occasions in Venezuela. Alfredo Romero stated that in the course of 2016 the number of people imprisoned exceeded the number of those released. [4] In 2017, political prisoners who had been imprisoned for one, two or even three years were released and new people were arrested afterwards. For instance, audiovisual producer Héctor Pedroza Carrizo was detained without a warrant by agents of the National Guard's Anti-Extortion and Kidnapping Command (CONAS) at his home. [5]
In 2018, the National Constituent Assembly announced the release of 79 people, but only 40 of the cases consisted in political prisoners from a list made up of 237 civilians and 79 military personnel by then. Those released from prison were required to present themselves periodically before the Constituent Assembly and not before the courts, something irregular. [6]
Romero elaborated on the phenomenon again in a July 2020 Wilson Center publication, "The Clock of Repression," noting the correlation between the releases and new arrests shortly thereafter. [7]
The mechanism was implemented in Cuba since 2003. That year saw Cuba's Black Spring, which consisted of the kidnapping, beatings and imprisonment of 75 dissidents. After long years of international negotiations and campaigning on their behalf, they were all released. They were offered to leave the island, which was accepted by some of them and others opted to stay; they suffered express kidnappings and forced disappearances for a few days and hours, being accused of minor common crimes and constantly besieged by security agents first and then by supporters of the communist party. [8]
In 2016, the term was used by Burma Campaign UK to refer to the situation of political prisoners in Myanmar. [9]
NGOs in Nicaragua have denounced that Daniel Ortega's regime implements the "revolving door" mechanism with his government's political prisoners. [10] [11]
Denailing is the extraction of the nails from the fingers and/or toes, either as an accident, a medical procedure to treat severe nail infections, or as a method of torture.
The record of human rights in Venezuela has been criticized by human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Concerns include attacks against journalists, political persecution, harassment of human rights defenders, poor prison conditions, torture, extrajudicial executions by death squads, and forced disappearances.
Alejandro Peña Esclusa is a Venezuelan writer, analyst and political consultant, expert on the subject of the Sao Paulo Forum, about which he has written five books. The most sold of them is entitled "The Cultural War of the Sao Paulo Forum", which has been translated from Spanish into English, Portuguese, Italian, Slovenian and Hungarian.
Ramo Verde Prison is a military prison in the Los Teques municipality of Miranda, Venezuela. It is a prison known for its strict policies and security measures for prisoners, reserved specifically for military personnel and civilians whose characteristics represent an importance to the Venezuelan state, whether for reasons of safety or policies that may stay in place temporarily or to meet all of their penalties.
Foro Penal is a Venezuelan human rights organization that provides legal assistance pro bono to people subject of arbitrary detentions and their relatives. The organization is composed of regional coordinators for each state in Venezuela, pro bono lawyers on a national level and a network of over five thousand volunteers, non-lawyer activists, known as "active defensors".
Tamara Sujú Roa is a Venezuelan criminal lawyer and human rights specialist.
Throughout its history, many people have been arrested and imprisoned in Venezuela for political reasons, mainly during the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez and that of Marcos Pérez Jiménez in the 20th century and during the Bolivarian Revolution in the 21st century.
Torture in Venezuela has been a consistent phenomenon throughout its history. Various dictatorships from the Spanish colonial era into the twentieth century utilized torture against common criminals and political opponents. In the twentieth century, torture was common during the dictatorships of Juan Vicente Gómez and Marcos Pérez Jiménez. Torture also took place occasionally during Venezuela's democratic period, particularly during social outbursts, such as during the Caracazo and the 1992 coup attempts.
The 2018 Nicaraguan protests began on 18 April 2018 when demonstrators in several cities of Nicaragua began protests against the social security reforms decreed by President Daniel Ortega that increased taxes and decreased benefits. After five days of unrest in which nearly thirty people were killed, Ortega announced the cancellation of the reforms; however, the opposition has grown through the 2014–2018 Nicaraguan protests to denounce Ortega and demand his resignation, becoming one of the largest protests in his government's history and the deadliest civil conflict since the end of the Nicaraguan Revolution. On 29 September 2018, political demonstrations were declared illegal by President Ortega.
A group of inmates were involved in a prison riot on 24 May 2019 in the police station cellblocks in Acarigua, Portuguesa state, Venezuela. The riot allegedly began when inmate Wilfredo Ramos was killed following ten days of protests against the denial of visits by relatives.
Rocío San Miguel Sosa is a lawyer and human rights activist, specialising in military issues. She is also the president of the NGO Control Ciudadano, a civil association whose objective is the supervision of citizens in terms of national security, defense, and the armed forces. She also supervises the commitments that the Venezuelan state has to the Rome Statute and the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.
Golpe Azul, also known as Operation Jericho, was an accusation by the Venezuelan government that resulted in the arrest of several people, including the metropolitan mayor of Caracas Antonio Ledezma. The accusation consisted in an alleged coup d'état plan against the presidency of Nicolás Maduro, which reportedly would take place on 12 February 2015 and would have several targets in Caracas. The name of the plan refers to the blue uniform of the Venezuelan Air Force in which several suspects were officers.
Carlos Andrés García was a Venezuelan politician who served as councilor of Guasdualito, Apure, and who died while incarcerated by the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN).
The Guanare prison riot, also known as the Guanaremassacre, occurred in the Los Llanos prison in Guanare, Portuguesa state, Venezuela, on 1 May 2020. The events caused around 47 deaths, and 75 people were injured.
Gonzalo Himiob Santomé is a Venezuelan lawyer, writer and activist. He is a founding member of the non-governmental organization Foro Penal and is currently its vice-president.
Alfredo Romero Mendoza is a Venezuelan lawyer, human rights activist and executive director of the non-governmental organization Foro Penal. He received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 2017.
Hugo Torres Jiménez was a Nicaraguan Sandinista guerrilla and military leader who was a brigadier general in the Nicaraguan Armed Forces. During the Sandinista National Liberation Front effort to overthrow the Somoza family regime, Torres was the only guerrilla who participated in both the 1974 Christmas party raid that freed future President Daniel Ortega among other prisoners, and the 1978 raid on the National Palace, freeing another 60 political prisoners. In the late 1990s he became a critic of Ortega, leaving the FSLN to join the Sandinista Renovation Movement and later its successor the Democratic Renewal Union, serving as vice-president of both parties. In June 2021 he was part of a wave of arrests of opposition figures by the Ortega administration. He died the following February.
Salvador Franco was a Venezuelan Pemon political prisoner. Franco was detained in December 2019 accused of having participated on the 22 December in a barracks assault in Bolívar state, dying afterwards due to lack of medical attention.
The Partial Agreement on the Promotion of Political Rights and Electoral Guarantees for All, most commonly known simply as the Barbados Agreement, is a pair of agreements signed by the Maduro government and the Venezuelan opposition Plataforma Unitaria Democrática in October 2023, in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Milagros Mata Gil was a Venezuelan novelist and essayist. She was a professor of Spanish, literature and Latin at the Instituto Pedagógico de Caracas. She was also a researcher in the area of Venezuelan literature and was a member of the Venezuelan Academy of the Spanish Language since 2011 until her death. She is known, in principle, for her novels and essays, as well as for being the author of the anthem of the Heres Municipality, Bolívar state.