Maduro’s Crackdown: Children Arrested in Unprecedented Sweep

The Venezuelan Supreme Court has ruled that Nicolas Maduro will return for his third term in office despite local and international calls for the transparency and the publication of the voting tallies. 

Young people protesting election results. (Adriana Loureiro Fernandez )

The declaration that Maduro had won the July 28 elections was met with ongoing protests from Venezuelans at home and in the diaspora. This was followed by as many as 2000 arrests of demonstrators some as young as 13 years old. At least two dozen people were shot to death; one was 15.

According to a recent report in the Washington Post, a mother recalled how around 1:00 am more than a dozen counterintelligence officers knocked down the door of her home and pointed rifles at her and her five year old, before slapping and handcuffing her 15 year old to reveal the name of a friend.  The news report went on to state that the woman and her five year old were detained overnight while her 15 year old son was held in custody for 20 days.

Nicholas Maduro (Reuters Photo)

Human Rights organizations that have been monitoring the situation in Venezuela believe that this boy is “one of at least 120 minors to have been imprisoned by the security forces of President Nicolás Maduro since the autocratic socialist claimed reelection last month.

All of the children are believed to have been charged with terrorism with more than 100 of them still being in custody. In the lead up to the elections, Maduro, had threatened the country with a “bloodbath” if he was not reelected. 

Ballot box in Venezuela General Elections 2024 (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, CNN reports that its team spoke to about half a dozen Venezuelans who have fled the Bolivarian Republic under the cover of darkness in the past month. According to the news report, the fleeing Venezuelans shared that they swapped clothes and hid in bushes to avoid being stopped at checkpoints set up by government forces.