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The US said on Tuesday it was “deeply concerned” by the arrest of a prominent human rights lawyer and five of her relatives in Venezuela amid worries of a broader crackdown on civil society ahead of elections this year.
Rocío San Miguel, a lawyer and military analyst, was detained on Friday by authorities at the Maiquetía airport near Caracas while waiting to board a flight to Miami with her adult son. Since then, five of her relatives have been reported missing, including her daughter Miranda Díaz San Miguel and her ex-husband Victor Díaz.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday that the US was “deeply concerned” about San Miguel’s arrest, and that Washington was “watching this very, very closely”.
“Mr Maduro needs to meet the commitments that he made back in the fall about how they are going to treat civil society, political activists, as well as opposition parties,” Kirby added, referring to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his government.
Venezuela’s attorney-general, Tarek William Saab, said on Monday night that San Miguel, 57, had been charged with treason, conspiracy and terrorism. The charges came a day after she was accused of being involved in an alleged “conspiracy plot and attempted assassination” of Maduro and “other high-ranking officials”.
Saab said that San Miguel should be held pending trial, and that one of her relatives had been charged with revealing state secrets. The four other relatives would have to present themselves “periodically before the court”, Saab said in a statement on Tuesday.
But family members say the charges are trumped up and that neither they nor their lawyers have been able to reach the detainees since they were reported missing.
“They are trying to silence Rocío because she has defended human rights and voiced criticism in the military sphere,” Minnie Díaz, Victor Díaz’s sister and Miranda’s aunt, told the Financial Times. “Our lawyers have had no access to any of the state institutions. We don’t know where they are or in what condition they are in.”
The arrests come as Venezuela prepares for momentous elections later this year, in which Maduro, an authoritarian socialist, is expected to run despite having presided over economic and humanitarian crises in the oil-rich country.
In order to entice Maduro into permitting a “free and fair” election, the US in October provisionally relaxed sanctions on the country’s oil, gas and mining sectors, as well as its secondary debt markets, on the condition that opposition candidates be allowed to run and political prisoners be released.
But that deal is quickly unwinding. Opposition leader María Corina Machado, a market-friendly former lawmaker who overwhelmingly won a primary in October, is banned from holding office, while three of her aides were arrested in January.
The government-controlled legislature is considering a law on non-governmental organisations that UN officials say would represent “a point of no return in the closure of the civic and democratic space in Venezuela”. There are about 260 political prisoners being held in the country, according to local watchdog Foro Penal.
Last month the US reimposed sanctions on Venezuela’s mining sector, while threatening to reinstate others — including on the country’s critical oil sector — on April 18 if political reforms are not made.
San Miguel and her daughter have dual Venezuelan-Spanish citizenship, though Spain has yet to publicly comment on their disappearance.
“We’re calling on the government of Spain to request extradition or any real information on Rocío’s status,” Minnie Díaz said.
