Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab (left) during an interview with Miguel Angel Perez Pirela from the La IguanaTV news outlet. Photo: Screenshot of the video interview/La IguanaTV.
The attorney general of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, pointed out that any minors detained for participation in the post-electoral violence on July 29 and 30 are between 16 and 17 years old, so it is false to claim that there are “children” or pre-adolescents in Venezuelan prisons, as the Venezuelan far-right opposition and US media outlets have alleged.
The statement was issued by Saab during an interview conducted by Miguel Pérez Pirela on the podcast Desde Donde Sea (“from wherever”), broadcast by La Iguana TV this Thursday, September 5.
The attorney general stated that Venezuelan legislation stipulates that for someone to be considered a “child” in Venezuela, they must be 10 years of age or less.
“In Venezuela, children linked to any type of crime are not liable, not even pre-adolescents—those between 11 and 13 years old,” noted Saab. “Therefore, those who have been arrested as minors are those who are 16 and 17 years old and have confessed that they were paid, that they were deceived, that they were even given motorcycles so that they could make noise around the voting centers that were being attacked [by opposition thugs].”
Saab reflected on the fact that in Venezuela, minors, like everywhere else in the world, cannot vote: “How is it possible that if a minor does not have the right to vote, they are going to protest against election results that did not convince them, when they do not even have the right to vote? This is truly disgusting.”
He reiterated that 60% of those arrested, including adults, were not even registered with the National Electoral Council (CNE), and confessed to having received money to carry out acts of vandalism and violence, hoping to provoke retribution or arrest by the country’s security forces.
The attorney general also recalled that since the so-called guarimbas began years ago, the far-right opposition has been using minors, which is inexcusable from every point of view.
In addition, AG Saab noted that the state is responsible for evaluating the legal standing of those detained and assessing the measures taken by law enforcement agencies and “not the mercenary NGOs that, in order to justify the thousands of dollars given to them by USAID… are making noise outside prisons, outside the courts.”
AG Saab also noted that NGOs are distributing forms to relatives of those detained for participating in subversive activities to try deceiving them into believing that the NGOs can secure the freedom of the detainees. In this way, the NGOs attempt to justify the payments issued to them from abroad. In reality, any benefits or leniency that the Venezuelan courts grant to minors when they are facing potential sentencing are the result of Venezuelan law and the natural judicial process.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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