Vzla: Unlawful detention

Four days after his arrest Luis Guillermo Perez Amoros continues to be held captive in Fuerte Tiuna without charges having being presented against him. Santiago Monteverde and Pedro Vasquez, the other two arrested with him, are allegedly in the same situation. Such repression and privation of liberty constitutes a gross violation to the most basic human right principles and it differs not, from a legal perspective, from the position that terrorist suspects have in Guantanamo Bay. Family members of Mr Perez Amoros are expecting his house to be raided at any time by the army.

N.B.: Prisoners in Guantanamo are enemy or unlawful combatants taken on the field of battle. Consequently, they have no legal standing under the Geneva Convention. Since Venezuela is not at war with anyone, externally or internally, then Luis Guillermo Perez Amoros, exercising his constitutional right to protest against an unjust government, does not fall into the same category as prisoners in Guantanamo.