Aidaliz Guarisma Mérida was arbitrarily detained at her home on August 10, 2021, and transferred to the headquarters of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin) in Caracas two days later. She was held incommunicado for 12 days

Aidaliz Guarisma Mérida, a professor at the School of Performing Arts of Universidad de Los Andes (ULA), was arbitrarily detained on August 10 at her home in Mérida and transferred two days later to the headquarters of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN). in Caracas, located in the building known as El Helicoide. Sixteen days later, she was charged with at least three crimes and she has been able to contact her family only twice.

The incident became known by the Human Rights Observatory at Universidad de Los Andes (ODH-ULA) thanks to the testimony of Milagros Guarisma Mérida, the victim’s mother. The ODH-ULA legal team is currently assisting Milagros Guarisma in the filing of a complaint before the Prosecutor’s Office of the Public Ministry in the Judicial District of the state of Mérida, where she denounces the actions of the SEBIN officials in the region who arbitrarily took her daughter away on the afternoon of August 10 and held her incommunicado until the night of August 12, when she was transferred to the Caracas headquarters.

The facts

Milagros Guarisma told the ODH-ULA that, around 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday, August 10, 2021, she, her daughter, and her granddaughter were at their place of residence in the city of Mérida when three men and one woman in civilian clothes suddenly arrived and identified themselves as officials of the SEBIN. They told Aidaliz Guarisma to come with them but failed to show an arrest warrant. Despite the victim’s refusal, the officials took her out of her home against her will and forced her to get into the truck without license plates on which they had arrived to look for her.

Almost 44 hours after the arbitrary detention, Milagros Guarisma managed to communicate with her daughter, and that is when she learned that Aidaliz was being held at the SEBIN regional headquarters, located in the La Mara neighborhood. At 10 p.m. on Thursday, August 12, a man in civilian clothes, who identified himself as an official of the SEBIN, knocked on the door of the victim’s residence and handed Milagros Guarisma a wallet, her daughter’s clothes, and a letter written by her descendant, as she could tell from the handwriting. In the letter, Aidaliz asked her mother not to inform anyone about her arrest and that she was going to be transferred to Caracas.

12 more days passed without Milagros Guarisma having news of her daughter. In the afternoon of Tuesday, August 24, she received a call from an unknown number. When she answered, she briefly heard the voice of her daughter, who informed her that she was held in the Caracas headquarters of the SEBIN (In a building known as El Helicoide) with the possibility of communicating only once a week. Two days later, on the morning of August 26, a man who identified himself as Carlos Carrero contacted her by phone and told her that he was the public defender assigned to her daughter’s case.

Carrero informed Milagros that his daughter, Aidaliz Guarisma Mérida, was charged with the crimes of corruption (a crime under the Law on Corruption and the Seguarding of Assets), disclosure of sensitive information (provided for in the Special Law on Cyber Crimes), and criminal association (established in the Law on Organized Crime and Terrorism Financing).

“I ask that due process be observed, that my daughter’s rights be respected because she has not committed any of the crimes she is accused of. She should have been tried here, why did they have to transfer her to Caracas?” told Milagros Guarisma by telephone on Thursday, August 26. She hopes to be able to travel to Caracas soon to see her daughter, but the restrictions of the pandemic and the difficulties in access to transportation are important obstacles.

Violations of due process and human rights

The ODH-ULA denounced this incident as a case of arbitrary detention with enforced disappearance. Aidaliz Guarisma Mérida was taken from her house on August 10 by officials of the SEBIN without a uniform or identification, against her will, and without an arrest warrant. For almost two days, she was held incommunicado at the Sebin headquarters, without her relatives knowing about it and without her due right to defense through a lawyer of her choice. Then, on the night of August 12, she was taken to Caracas without a transfer order from the police or a court.

This case also constitutes enforced disappearance since the victim’s whereabouts remained unknown for 12 days between August 12 and 24. This crime is considered a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of persons. Furthermore, Article 45 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela prohibits the enforced disappearance of persons. The observatory demands that the Venezuelan State respect the human rights of Aidaliz Guarisma Mérida and observe due process in her case, which includes her legitimate right to defense and to communicate with her family or counsel.

Translated by José Rafael Medina