The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, said Thursday that it will ask the UN for the exhumation and autopsy of General Raul Baduel, a former ally of the former president Hugo Chavez became a dissident of Chavismo who died in prison in Venezuela.
“The United Nations has a mission on the ground and this autopsy is absolutely decisive to attend to this case and to determine responsibilities that may exist in this regard.”Almagro said after meeting at the OAS headquarters in Washington with the lawyer for the Baduel family, Omar Mora Tosta, and representatives of the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
The head of the OAS specified that he will take the matter before the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, whose office on Wednesday urged Caracas to guarantee a “Independent investigation” on Baduel’s death and called for the release of all those arbitrarily detained in Venezuela.
“The release of all political prisoners is a moral, ethical, legal imperative and of all of us who seek democracy“Said Almagro, and stressed that Baduel He is the 10th political detainee to die in prison since Maduro came to power in 2013.
On her side, Mora Tosta requested the formation of a independent international commission to investigate the causes of the death of Baduel, who he said died in the arms of his son, Josnars Adolfo Baduel, imprisoned for his alleged participation in a maritime incursion in May 2019 that sought the departure of Maduro.
“What you want is to really establish the truth: what happened to General Baduel. And that this becomes a definitive fight for political prisoners to regain their full freedom, “he told journalists.
Mora Tosta rejected that Baduel, who he said was Buried the day before in the East Caracas Cemetery without the presence of his relatives, has died of covid-19, as stated by the Maduro government.
The Attorney General of Venezuela, Tarek saab, announced Tuesday the death of 66-year-old Baduel, saying he passed away “From a cardiorespiratory arrest caused by covid-19”, “while the corresponding medical care was being applied” and after having “received the first dose of the vaccine” anticovid.
But Baduel’s relatives deny that he had the virus, and his daughter, Andreína Baduel, denounced that “the regime murdered” her father.
Mora Tosta also said that he will ask the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an organ of the OAS, protection measures for the Baduel family, in particular for their son Josnars, who according to the lawyer is under pressure from the Maduro government.
The NGO Criminal Forum, dedicated to defending political prisoners, figure in 260 the number of prisoners for political reasons in Venezuela. However, Mora Tosta estimates that they are close to 300.
(With information from AFP)
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