VENEZUELA: POLITICAL PRISIONER CONDITIONS WORSEN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CARACAS 000725

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
DEPT PASS TO AID/OTI RPORTER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/12/2017
TAGS: PHUM KDEM VE
SUBJECT: VENEZUELA: POLITICAL PRISIONER CONDITIONS WORSEN

REF: A. CARACAS 00147 AND PREVIOUS

B. 06 CARACAS 02424 AND PREVIOUS

CARACAS 00000725 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ROBERT DOWNES FOR 1.4 (D)

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Summary
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1. (C) There are indications that the BRV is stepping up its
efforts to demean, discourage, and disillusion its political
prisoners. Former police commissioners Ivan Simonovis,
Lazaro Forero, and Henry Vivas launched a hunger strike April
10 to protest the deplorable conditions in the prison to
which they have been recently transferred, as well as to
their continued illegal detention. The ex-commissioners,
along with eight other Caracas Metropolitan Police officers,
are on trial as accomplices to murder for events related to
the April 2002 coup, and were listed as political prisoners
in the Department's 2006 Country Report on Human Rights
Practices for Venezuela (Ref A). At the same time, former
Finance Minister and retired Brigadier General Francisco Uson
Ramirez, a political prisoner listed in the Country Report
since 2005 (Ref B),was recently denied visitors for
allegedly violating prison rules on the sending and receiving
of correspondence following the widespread publication of his
letter in support of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV). End
Summary.

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Simonovis, Vivas, Forero
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2. (U) Former police commissioners Ivan Simonovis, Lazaro
Forero, and Henry Vivas, who are on trial along with eight
other Caracas Metropolitan Police officers as accomplices to
murder for events related to the April 2002 coup, launched a
hunger strike April 10 to protest inhumane prison conditions,
as well as their continued illegal detention. (Note: In
November 2006, the police officials reached the two-year
detention mark, at which point Venezuelan law requires them
to be released for the remainder of the trial.) The
ex-commissioners, incarcerated since 2004, had been held in
DISIP headquarters in Caracas, but were arbitrarily moved the
week of April 1 to a DISIP installation closer to the court
house in Maracay where they are standing trial. The other
eight officers were returned to their cells in Caracas.


3. (U) Forero's wife described the ex-commissioners'
quarters to reporters as a bug-infested, "makeshift cell that
seems more like an animal cage." She said it is dark, with
unbearable heat, and "without any type of privacy, not even
to relieve their physiological needs." When the defense
protested the conditions, the judge ordered that the
defendants be returned to the Caracas jail. However, police
authorities ignored the judge's order on April 10 and
returned the ex-Commissioners to the objectionable cell.


4. (SBU) Simonovis' wife (and lawyer) told Poloff April 11
that Caracas authorities claimed that they kept the
ex-commissioners in Maracay the first time because one of the
cars they used to transport them had broken down. Mrs.
Simonovis said, however, that the Maracay police offered one
of their cars as a temporary replacement. She said the judge
has promised to intervene, but she has "no faith whatsoever"
in that promise. She also told Poloff that she and the other
defense lawyers have alerted the Inter-American Human Rights
Commission about the situation as well. A pro-Chavez human
rights leader called on the Supreme Tribunal of Justice to
"take corrective measures to end the hunger strike."
Attorney General Rodriguez has asked DISIP and TSJ officials
to shore up security around the commissioners, alleging that
they were being held under the same lax conditions that
allowed former CTV labor union president Carlos Ortega and
ex-governor Eduardo Lapi to escape.

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General Uson
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5. (U) On April 5 retired Brigadier General (and former
Finance Minister) Francisco Uson's right to receive visitors
was suspended for a week for allegedly violating prison
regulations regarding the sending and receiving of
correspondence. (Note: Uson is serving a five and one-half
year term at Ramo Verde military prison for alleged

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"defamation" of the military (Ref B).) The decision appears
to be in retaliation for Uson's open letter in support of
Radio Caracas Television (RCTV),which was widely published
in local newspapers. Uson's lawyer, Gonzalo Himiob, tried to
appeal the decision to the Human Rights Ombudsman, arguing
that his client was denied his constitutional right to due
process. The Ombudsman's office made Himiob wait two and
one-half hours before refusing to accept the request.
Similarly, an attempt to request a copy of the regulation in
question also went unanswered.

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Comment
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6. (C) The BRV's latest treatment of the political prisoners
is yet another way to demean, discourage, and disillusion
them, as well as to intimidate other potential and existing
opposition members. Vivas, Forero, and Simonovis' treatment
appears to have steadily deteriorated in the past few months.
Threats against Simonovis' wife and lawyer has increased to
the point where she now has a police guard. Uson had
received death threats last year in prison. The
ex-Commissioners' lawyers seem to believe the trial will end
this year, but it is unlikely the politicized,
Chavez-controlled court system will acquit the so-called
"enemies of the revolution," despite the fact the prosecution
has yet to produce evidence linking them to any wrongdoing.
Post will continue to maintain contact with the families and
defense teams.

BROWNFIELD