{"id":2564,"date":"2017-12-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armando.info\/?p=2564"},"modified":"2017-12-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T00:00:00","slug":"venezuela-the-mecca-of-nightmares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/venezuela-the-mecca-of-nightmares\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela, the Mecca of nightmares"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When \r\nlistening to the story of the five Trinitarians who were in a Venezuelan prison \r\nfor over two years it is inevitable to think that it is about a movie or a case \r\nof the British documentary-docudrama \"Banged Up Abroad\". There is a more distant \r\nreference, but that may be relevant to the case. In the late seventies, when \r\nVenezuela was the dreamed destination of Latin Americans victims of military \r\ndictatorships and the economic chaos of their countries, the Ministry of Tourism \r\nof the time imposed the slogan \"Venezuela, a country to love\". When, on November \r\n25, 2016, the Trinitarians left to their country, after two years of uncertainty \r\nat the headquarters of the political police of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s regime, they \r\ncould not endorse the slogan. The government of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro was responsible \r\nfor letting them know otherwise, during their time in \r\nprison.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In \r\nearly 2014, they arrived in the country to process the visa to go on pilgrimage \r\nto Mecca. Dominic Pitilal, Andre Battersby, Charles Wade, Asim Luqman and Leslie \r\nDeslie were staying with their relatives at the Plaza Palace hotel in Sabana \r\nGrande, a business area of Caracas, in the height of the protests against \r\nNicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s government in March 2014. Officials of the Bolivarian \r\nIntelligence Service (Sebin) and the Administrative Service of Identification, \r\nMigration, and Immigration (Saime) raided their rooms in response to some \r\nanonymous reports warning that a group of illegal aliens in the country; as \r\ndescribed in the court record.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"kb-gallery-wrap-id-_PeRJy5-IX alignnone wp-block-kadence-advancedgallery\"><div class=\"kb-gallery-ul kb-gallery-non-static kb-gallery-type-slider kb-gallery-id-_PeRJy5-IX kb-gallery-caption-style-below kb-gallery-filter-none kb-gallery-magnific-init\" data-image-filter=\"none\" data-lightbox-caption=\"true\"><div class=\"kt-blocks-carousel splide kt-carousel-container-dotstyle-dark kt-carousel-arrowstyle-whiteondark kt-carousel-dotstyle-dark kb-slider-group-arrow kb-slider-arrow-position-center\" data-slider-anim-speed=\"400\" data-slider-scroll=\"1\" data-slider-arrows=\"true\" data-slider-fade=\"true\" data-slider-dots=\"true\" data-slider-type=\"slider\" data-slider-hover-pause=\"false\" data-slider-auto=\"\" data-slider-speed=\"7000\" data-show-pause-button=\"false\"><div class=\"splide__track\"><ul class=\"kt-blocks-carousel-init kb-blocks-slider splide__list\"><li class=\"kb-slide-item kb-gallery-slide-item splide__slide\"><div class=\"kadence-blocks-gallery-item\"><div class=\"kadence-blocks-gallery-item-inner\"><figure class=\"kb-gallery-figure kb-gallery-item-has-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24122017-1.PNG\" class=\"kb-gallery-item-link\"   role=\"button\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><div class=\"kb-gal-image-radius\"><div class=\"kb-gallery-image-contain kadence-blocks-gallery-intrinsic kb-gallery-image-ratio-inherit kb-has-image-ratio-inherit\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"656\" height=\"412\" src=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24122017-1.PNG\"   alt=\"\" data-full-image=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24122017-1.PNG\" data-light-image=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24122017-1.PNG\" data-id=\"53706\" class=\"wp-image-53706 skip-lazy\"\/><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><li class=\"kb-slide-item kb-gallery-slide-item splide__slide\"><div class=\"kadence-blocks-gallery-item\"><div class=\"kadence-blocks-gallery-item-inner\"><figure class=\"kb-gallery-figure kb-gallery-item-has-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/21122017-7.JPG\" class=\"kb-gallery-item-link\"   role=\"button\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><div class=\"kb-gal-image-radius\"><div class=\"kb-gallery-image-contain kadence-blocks-gallery-intrinsic kb-gallery-image-ratio-inherit kb-has-image-ratio-inherit\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"820\" height=\"547\" src=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/21122017-7.JPG\"   alt=\"\" data-full-image=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/21122017-7.JPG\" data-light-image=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/21122017-7.JPG\" data-id=\"53707\" class=\"wp-image-53707 skip-lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/21122017-7.JPG 820w, https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/21122017-7-700x467.jpg 700w, https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/21122017-7-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px\" \/><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In \r\nthe raid, electronic devices, a badge of the Municipal Police of Chacao, 66 \r\npassports, a green field jacket with an emblem of the Bolivarian National \r\nPatriotic Armed Forces, clothing and 5.11-brand implements usually used for \r\nstrategies tactics, and cash (both foreign and local currency) were seized. The \r\nTrinitarians always assured that they took an approximate of 100 thousand \r\ndollars from them; however, the amount on the records was much \r\nlower.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among \r\nthe electronic devices obtained was a cell phone owned by Dominic Pitilal that \r\ncontained a video and photographs where he and his companions could supposedly \r\nbe observed in a shooting practice in the polygon of the National Police. This \r\nrecording was used by the authorities to lock them in the headquarters of Sebin, \r\nin El Helicoide, and take the five foreigners to trial, together with three \r\nother Venezuelans, for the crime of terrorism. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">From Terrorists to Intruders<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two \r\nyears, six months and 25 days after the raid and arrest of the tourists, the \r\nJudge of the 12th Trial Court, Mar\u00eda Eugenia N\u00fa\u00f1ez, at 1 am on October 15, 2016, \r\nfound the citizens from Trinidad and Tobago guilty of espionage based on \r\ncircumstantial evidence and unlawful association and imposed a penalty that \r\nmatched exactly with the time they had been imprisoned. They received their \r\nrelease card, but it was not until a month and a half later, at the end of \r\nNovember 2016, when Sebin officials released them and later on they were \r\ndeported.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During \r\nthe trial, the Trinitarians were not accused of terrorism and criminal \r\nassociation but of the offense provided for in article 137 of the Venezuelan \r\ncriminal code: \"Anyone who has unduly obtained the plans of the fortifications, \r\nships or aircraft of war, establishments, roads or military works, or who for \r\nthat purpose had clandestinely or with deception entered into places prohibited \r\nto public access by the military authority, shall be punished, with three to \r\nfifteen-month imprisonment .\"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \r\ndefense attorneys affirm that the decision to change the crime was a maneuver by \r\nthe prosecutor\u2019s office to release them after the ruling and not admit that they \r\nwere wrong in imputing five innocents. \"There was a lot of international \r\npressure, the Embassy of Trinidad and Tobago attended all the hearings. If they \r\nwere accused of terrorism they would spend their lives in prison, \"explains \r\nattorney Germ\u00e1n Ponte.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \r\njudge in charge of the fate of the Muslims was the same who, on May 12, 2015, \r\nprohibited the departure from Venezuela of 22 directors of different media, as a \r\nresult of the lawsuit filed by Diosdado Cabello, first vice president of the \r\nUnited Socialist Party of Venezuela and member of the current Constituent \r\nAssembly, for alleged aggravated and continued defamation against the newspapers \r\nEl Nacional, Tal Cual, and the website La Patilla. He was also in charge of the \r\ncase of Gilberto Sojo, alternate deputy of parliamentarian Dinorah Figuera for \r\nthe state of Aragua before the National Assembly and leader of Voluntad Popular \r\nfor the parish of San Agust\u00edn, who stayed at SEBIN headquarters for two years. \r\nCurrently Mar\u00eda Eugenia N\u00fa\u00f1ez is a superior court judge. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Waking Up from the Nightmare<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Four \r\nof the five Trinitarians were received on November 24, 2016, between tears and \r\nhugs, by their relatives at the International Airport of Piarco, the main \r\nterminal of that country. \"Thanks for the support. It was very important to us, \r\nespecially because we were alone there, feeling discouraged and abandoned. It \r\nwas a terrible experience. Most of the time, we did not have any food, but what \r\nis food without freedom. However, we were not brutally mistreated in any way,\" \r\nsaid one of them, Asim Luqman, to the Daily Express upon \r\narrival.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \r\ndefense denounced on several occasions to the Ombudsman's Office in Venezuela \r\nthat the detainees were not receiving medical care. The Trinitarians have \r\ninstructed their attorneys to appeal for not agreeing with the sentence. \"There \r\nare contradictions in the sentence. A conviction cannot be a whim of the judge. \r\nThe priority of them is that justice be done. That is why they will exhaust the \r\nlegal instances in the country to file the respective international complaints,\" \r\nexplains attorney Javier Mayorca.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \r\nfifth of the group that did not reunite with his loved ones that day was Charles \r\nWade. Upon arriving in Trinidad and Tobago from Venezuela, along with his other \r\nfour companions, he was taken into custody by the police of that country. Wade \r\nwas charged with committing fraud at the time of purchase of a vehicle in 2013 \r\nand had to spend a couple of days in prison until he was granted bail, as \r\nreported by the Daily Express media.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After \r\nthis case came to light, the head of the Islamic front in Trinidad and Tobago, \r\nUmar Abdullah, asked his government to establish diplomatic relationships with \r\nSaudi Arabia to ensure that local Muslims do not have to travel to Venezuela to \r\napply for a visa to attend the Hajj, an annual pilgrimage to Mecca that is \r\nmandatory in their religion. A measure that, according to Abdullah, would avoid \r\nrepeating the story that today condemns \r\nVenezuela.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"wps-pgfw-pdf-generate-icon__wrapper-frontend pgfw-icon-display pgfw-icon-display--default\" style=\"--pgfw-icon-justify:center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/?action=genpdf&#038;id=2564\" class=\"pgfw-single-pdf-download-button pgfw-single-pdf-download-button--default pgfw-single-pdf-download-button--icon-only\" title=\"Generate PDF\" style=\"--pgfw-icon-width:25px;--pgfw-icon-height:45px;\" aria-label=\"Download PDF\"><span class=\"pgfw-single-pdf-download-button__media\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><img src=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-generator-for-wp\/admin\/src\/images\/PDF_Tray.svg\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\"><\/span><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five Trinitarian Muslims lived a nightmare in the coolest destination in the world. When they traveled to Caracas to process the visa required to go on pilgrimage to Mecca, they were detained by the political police on terrorism charges. They spent two years, six months and 25 days in the cells of Sebin (Bolivarian National Intelligence Service). Then, and to not acknowledge the error of imputing five innocent persons, the judge issued a penalty equal to the time they were locked up. The solution does not return the lost time to five foreigners who lived through the tragedy of dealing with the perverse and ineffective Judiciary created by chavismo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":53708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389,2387,2210],"tags":[96],"pais":[4216],"serie":[],"localizacion":[4227],"ppma_author":[2222],"class_list":["post-2564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-deportes","category-internacionales","category-investigacion","tag-carcel","pais-venezuela-en"],"acf":{"reportage-top-html":""},"views":1799,"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2389,"label":"Deportes"},{"value":2387,"label":"Internacionales"},{"value":2210,"label":"Investigacion"}],"post_tag":[{"value":96,"label":"C\u00c3\u00a1rcel"}],"pais":[{"value":4216,"label":"Venezuela"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24122017.PNG",1920,784,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"ARMANDO.INFO","author_link":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/author\/armando2\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":2389,"name":"Deportes","slug":"deportes","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2389,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":16,"filter":"raw","menu_order":"0","cat_ID":2389,"category_count":16,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Deportes","category_nicename":"deportes","category_parent":0},{"term_id":2387,"name":"Internacionales","slug":"internacionales","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2387,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":127,"filter":"raw","menu_order":"0","cat_ID":2387,"category_count":127,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Internacionales","category_nicename":"internacionales","category_parent":0},{"term_id":2210,"name":"Investigacion","slug":"investigacion","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2210,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":670,"filter":"raw","menu_order":"0","cat_ID":2210,"category_count":670,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Investigacion","category_nicename":"investigacion","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":96,"name":"C\u00c3\u00a1rcel","slug":"carcel","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":96,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":17,"filter":"raw","menu_order":"0"}],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-24 01:07:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"authors":[{"term_id":2222,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"katherine-pennacchio","display_name":"KATHERINE PENNACCHIO","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"pais","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pais?post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"localizacion","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/localizacion?post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}