A major Venezuelan opposition party says one of its activists, arrested earlier this week in the western state of Apure, has been “murdered.”
Edwin Santos “was murdered after being kidnapped by members of state security forces” on Wednesday, the Voluntad Popular (VP) party said on Friday, blaming President Nicolás Maduro’s iron-fisted regime.
The vice president said Santos was found dead Friday morning on a bridge that had been the focus of his defense after he disappeared Wednesday afternoon while traveling in the rural district of El Pinal.
“Witnesses in the region confirmed that he was intercepted by state security agents,” the party said in a statement.
It added that it confirmed Thursday that he was in custody at the headquarters of Venezuela’s military counterintelligence agency in Guasdualito, a city near the Colombian border.
Party official Adriana Pichardo told Agence France-Presse that Santos’ wife had identified his body.
“In recent months he had fought for his community, denouncing the collapse of the bridge connecting Apure with (the neighboring state of) Tachira,” VP said, adding: “It was on that bridge that he was found dead this morning. “
The bridge collapsed in July following heavy rains.
Writing on the social media platform
“Venezuela wants and needs the truth,” said González Urrutia, who on Thursday shared the European Union’s top human rights award with opposition leader María Corina Machado for resistance to Maduro’s regime.
Venezuelan opposition activists have been targeted in a widespread crackdown since Maduro’s July election despite the opposition publishing detailed poll results showing González Urrutia winning by a wide margin.