The relatives of a colonel imprisoned for Maduro accusations and of a young woman for relations with the FARC demand respect for their rights

The cases of two people, one civilian, the other military, in which there is a cry for justice, respect for legality, medical and food assistance. The impotence of their loved ones leads them as the only recourse to denounce through the media. The civilian is Maria Jose Gualdron Rivas, incarcerated in the prison of Santa Ana, State of Táchira, accused of relations with FARC dissidents; military, is the retired colonel of the national guard, Jose de Jesus Gamez Bustamante, incarcerated in the July 26 prison in San Juan de los Morros, state of Guárico. The woman’s father says he has no money to pay the prosecutor and the young woman is starving. The colonel is suffering from tuberculosis, which aggravates his precarious state of health.

Ana Teresa Gámez Bustamante, tells GlobeLiveMedia“I am the sister of Colonel José Gámez Bustamante, suffering from an illness due to poor hygiene and sanitary conditions in the country’s prisons. The prison ministry authorities tried to keep my brother’s illness a secret, but the most serious thing is that he did not receive the compulsory medical treatment necessary to combat the disease, with treatment being delayed by unnecessary bureaucratic procedures” .

He says that his brother, Colonel Gámez, “He suffered two strokes and is a heart patient, so we fear that a fatal outcome may occur. Therefore, I fear for his health in this prison. I ask you to make known through the media this painful illness that my brother is going through.

He calls for the attention of national and international public opinion, “for non-governmental organizations that watch over human rights and for the various media so that they become the voice of what is happening and prevent my brother from dying. there,” he finally said. , pointing out that Colonel Gámez has always been an honest and hardworking man.

This retired National Guard officer was arrested on January 21, 2015, when Nicolás Maduro accused him, through government propaganda media, of being the one who destroyed a supply of beef by fire and accused him of belonging to the One Movement.

Gámez Bustamante and his wife Carmen Alicia Gutiérrez Acevedo are arrested almost immediately by police. Some time later, his wife was released, while The officer has been imprisoned for eight years, in inhumane conditionswithout medical care and in a prison for common crimes in the state of Guárico, very far from his family.

On December 15, 2022, Maria Jose Gualdron Rivas she was sentenced to four years and six months. She was arrested, in April 2021, in a very irregular trial, because she was tortured, they did not allow her to communicate with her family or to defend herself in the context of justice. The problem stems from the relationship the young woman would have with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a guerrilla organization that had close ties with senior military and political leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution.

The situation did not receive much attention until after the peace agreement that the FARC signed with the Colombian government, dissident groups of this organization, in particular the tenth front and the whole group which brought together pseudonyms Gentil Duarte, refused to join the peace process. , so they continued to operate in Colombian territory, as well as in Venezuela.

Perhaps the crisis would not have erupted had it not been for the emergence of another FARC group, with Jesús Santrich and Iván Márquez, among others, who created the Second Marquetaliawho came into conflict with Gentil Duarte for control of territory on the Venezuelan border.

This conflict between FARC guerrillas was aimed at those who were linked, in one way or another, as collaborators or friends of the Tenth Front, mainly due to the battle between FARC dissidents and the Venezuelan army between March and June 2021.

In May 2018, residents of Apure and those who had interceded for María José told GlobeLiveMedia that she was detained by the General Directorate of Military Counter-Intelligence (DGCIM), at the La Pedrera checkpoint (Táchira), while she was heading towards Guasdualito (Apure), and that she was immediately transferred at DGCIM Caracas.

Neither her family nor her friends knew anything about the young woman. Ten days passed when a family saw her at the Guasdualito theater of operations, headquarters of the 92nd Caribbean Brigade, which raised alarm as she had been “severely beaten”. Since then, she has been detained and transferred to the prison of Santa Ana, in the state of Táchira, where it is impossible for her family to visit her due to the distance, the difficulties of transport and the lack of money. The four children of María José are in the hands of their relatives, for whom the situation is critical because they have arrested other siblings and cousins ​​who have been taken to Caracas.

Jose Ricardo Gualdronfather of María José, lives in the municipality of Páez in the state of Apure and tells GlobeLiveMedia that “we suffer, even endure hunger, nakedness”, for which he turns to prosecutor Tarek William Saab, Nicolás Maduro and Diosdado Cabello for help.

“My daughter is suffering in this prison in Santa Ana. I want them to get her out of there; she proved her innocence. We are poor, I don’t have money to pay a lawyer, to pay this attorney who is behind my daughter’s file; I have no money (money) to pay it”.

He asks the Prosecutor, Maduro and Diosdado to order the release of his daughter, stressing that “we are faithful to the process and everyone here knows it. I am very sad about everything that happened with my daughter. Mr President Nicolás Maduro, we elect you to govern, also to forgive when we make mistakes. If you have to choose it as many times as you want, we are loyal, me and my family.

“I want to ask you to release my daughter María José, who is a mother of four children, and I have another son there in Caracas who is also in prison. I also want you to release these Corriente boys (Corriente Revolucionaria Bolívar y Zamora, CRBZ). We live on the border and we joke about this US sanctions thing.”

He says that “the salary is not enough” and he says that it is very sad because there are eleven people in the family. And he points out that he could not visit his son imprisoned in Caracas because he has no money.

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