Caracas Chronicles

Name: César Andrés Meneses
Year of Birth: 2005
Date of Detention: July 29, 2024
Location: Maturín
Profession: Law student

César Andrés Meneses, 19 years old, was arrested on Monday, July 29, in Maturín, capital of the Monagas state. He was not participating in any protests, but there was a police deployment near where he was. César was bringing medicine to a co-worker. “Hurry up, because you can hear that they are throwing tear gas close by,” he told his companion. Minutes later, upon seeing the officials of the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) advancing, César began to run and the agents captured him.

His mother, Damelis Meneses, spoke with César between July 29 and August 31 at the facilities of the Criminal Investigations Division of the PNB in ​​Los Guaritos, Barrio Libertador in Maturín. However, that day, after the transfer of 29 people from Maturín to an unknown destination, Damelis has not heard César’s voice again, who was charged with terrorism, obstruction of public roads and inciting hatred. 

“I don’t know where they have my son. They transferred him on August 31 but they did not tell us where they took him. The 45 days [of judicial investigation] have already passed and I have no response from any official entity,” said his mother. 

“My son is a law student at the Gran Mariscal University of Ayacucho. Since he was little I taught him to be a good person. He currently suffers from respiratory problems, how are they going to say that someone like that is a terrorist and seeks to attack the stability of the country? It doesn’t make sense,” explains Damelis.

“I went to take the document in which my son named me as a defense attorney for his cause. They didn’t accept it.”

Damelis is a criminal lawyer with more than 25 years of experience and a teacher, so she tried to be sworn in as a defender of her son’s case. She traveled to Caracas up to six times, but was ignored and mistreated by the officials who treated her. At first they told her to come back the following week, until they told her that they would not be able to give her any information about the case and that she would not be able to meet with the judge or the public defender who is handling her son’s case.

“I went to take the document in which my son named me as a defense attorney for his cause. They didn’t accept it. The secretary of the 3rd anti-terrorism control court told me that it was not possible that week, that I had to return the following week. Then, the response was similar. Until she mistreated me and asked me why I insisted so much on that case. When I told her that I was the mother, she stayed silent,” Damelis said. 

Now, with the 45 days of investigation completed, she hopes that her son will be released, but she is also afraid because she does not know his whereabouts, as well as the state of his physical and mental health. “Just like me, there are many mothers here who don’t know where their children are. Some say that they are fine, but I cannot affirm that until I really know the state of my boy’s health,” he confessed. 

Damelis’s voice does not break during her search. She confesses that she has not turned to organizations that could support her because she believed that this could affect her son’s case and she trusts that, as a lawyer, she could resolve what was happening. At this point she understand that the situation is more complex than it would normally be. 

She assures that in Maturín there are many more cases like this, but that the relatives have decided to remain silent to avoid reprisals. “There is no type of criminalistic element to incriminate those boys. It is a flagrant violation of rights not to give information to the person’s mother. It’s terrible.”

Despite everything, Damelis insists on traveling to Caracas and demanding that she be informed where her son is being held and that she be allowed to see him. Although she does not lose hope, she knows that a lot of time has passed and fears in what conditions he may be.