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ePaper created 2015-11-10, 17:27:36 | version 1.33.00
REDACTED Page 186 of 190 of Torture. In the same programme, viewers were asked to “remember that he has close links with prison mafias and was always behind public order and prison disturbances”.827 Rocío San Miguel, director of Citizens Control for Security, Defense and the National Armed Forces (Control Ciudadano para la Seguridad, la Defensa y la Fuerza Armada Nacional), an NGO that monitors political rights, transparency, and military affairs, has been severely deprivated of fundamental rights since at least 2004. In 2004, she was fired from the CNF, a government agency attached to the office of the vice-president having been offered no reasons for her termination. Her supervisor later explained to her in a telephone conversation that she was a political appointee and that she was being dismissed for “showing disloyalty” by signing the petition for the recall referendum against Chávez.828 Since 2011, she and her family have been constantly threatened for her public criticism of the GoV, including an article she published in Tal Cual newspaper.829 On March 25, 2014 Maduro publicly accused her of being part of a group of people who was planning to perpetrate a coup d´etat. Maduro said “Rocío San Miguel is the link to the radical sector of the opposition, to the Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) party. She is the link. She is fully involved in this attempted coup. [S]he is paid by these international organizations who have conspired against Venezuela for a long time.”830 A few days before, she was threated by a person who approached her and said “we are going to break you”831 Omar Ernesto Silva Martínez, a private defence lawyer who has worked with Penal Forum, made a formal complaint on 14 October 2014 after he received several threatening calls and being followed by people who, judging by the cars they were using and the weapons they had, he believes were members of the intelligence services. This surveillance reportedly started after Omar Silva represented a Venezuelan citizen extradited from Colombia and charged with rebellion in Venezuela.832 Tamara Suju, member of Foro Penal Venezolano, occasional writer of opinion articles 827 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. (2015) Venezuela: the Faces of Impunity. p. 41-42 828 HRW. (2008) A decade under Chávez. p.53 829 SN. (2015) Amenazaron a activista Rocío San Miguel. Somos News. [Online] 7 May. Available from: http://www.somosnews.com/amenazaron-a-activista-rocio-san-miguel/ [Accessed 27 October, 2015] 830 NOTICIAS24. (2014) Maduro dice que Rocío San Miguel está “involucrada en el golpe de Estado” (+video). Noticias24. [Online] 25 March. Available from: http://www.noticias24.com/venezuela/noticia/230516/maduro-dice-que-rocio-san-miguel-esta- involucrada-en-el-golpe-de-estado/ [Accessed 27 October, 2015] 831 http://www.alertavenezuela.net/venezuela-difamacion-y-amenazas-en-contra-de-la-defensora-de- derechos-humanos-la-sra-rocio-san-miguel/?lang=en 832 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. (2015) Venezuela: the Faces of Impunity. p.43