Opposition leader and former Governor of the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, Alfredo Díaz, has reportedly died after 13 months of arbitrary detainment by the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service–or Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional–SEBIN–the regime's premier intelligence apparatus.
Alfredo Díaz, 54, was a leader of the Acción Democrática (A.D.), one of Venezuela's foremost opposition parties that countered the 14-year reign of Hugo Chávez and his successor and current president, Nicolás Maduro.
Since the rise of Chávismo, heralded by the socialist head of the Bolivarian movement in 1999, Chávez managed to play off of the internal disputes among the opposition parties in Venezuela, namely, the Acción Democrática and the Social Christian Party (COPEI), successfully fending off a coalescing of opposition factions and further extending his time in power at the center of Venezuelan politics.
Díaz became a prominent member of the opposition, rising to a governorship and an outspoken critic of the Maduro regime.
Díaz was arrested in November of 2024 by state security forces following a contentious presidential election where outside organizations condemned the results–and a Maduro victory–as "fraudulent".
Díaz was detained on charges of "terrorism" and "incitement of hatred" against the government, and eventually housed in the infamous El Helicoide prison facility, a high-profile, state-run detention center renowned for widespread accusations of human rights violations and systematic torture by international organizations.
The opposition leader's death comes 13 months after his apprehension by the government. Leopoldo López of the Voluntad Popular, and co-leader to Nobel Prize winner María Corina Machado, condemned the government's treatment of Díaz, calling him a "victim of dictatorship".
López also emphasized that each death of a political prisoner in Venezuelan state custody "is further evidence of the criminal nature of Chavismo."
Supporters of Díaz and third-party organizations claim that he had been denied sufficient medical treatment while in detention, and warned officials that his health was "rapidly deteriorating". Critics of the Maduro government also claim that Díaz had been refused visitors with the exception of his daughter.
Prisoners of the Venezuelan justice system are customarily permitted frequent visitors, including acquittances and family members, but according to people close to the matter, Díaz was routinely denied such treatment.
According to Foro Penal, a Venezuelan-based human rights organization, there are an estimated 887 political prisoners currently detained in Venezuela, 60 of whom remain missing, and 85 others who are classified as foreign nationals.
