The democratic opposition in Venezuela - 2017, Venezuela
The Sakharov Prize was granted to the democratic opposition in Venezuela, that is, to the National Assembly (represented by Julio Borges), and to all political prisoners listed by Foro Penal Venezolano (Venezuelan Penal Forum) and represented by Leopoldo López, Antonio Ledezma, Daniel Ceballos, Yon Goicoechea, Lorent Saleh, Alfredo Ramos and Andrea González.
For several years, Venezuela has been in political crisis. The ruling party has steadily limited the rule of law and the constitutional order, and in March 2017 the Supreme Court stripped the democratically elected National Assembly of its legislative power. Julio Borges, the president of the National Assembly, summed up the situation in Venezuela in the following words: 'It's not only a political confrontation in Venezuela. It's a vital, existential, values-based confrontation'.
Against a backdrop of hyperinflation, chaos and unrest that has been unfolding for at least a decade, the Venezuelan Government has persecuted, harassed and detained hundreds of political opponents. The identity and status of political prisoners is reported by Foro Penal Venezolano, a prominent Venezuelan human rights organisation that provides legal assistance pro bono to people who have limited economic resources and are presumed to have been detained arbitrarily, tortured or assaulted during protests.
The Venezuelan Government has detained opposition leaders such as Leopoldo López, Antonio Ledezma, Daniel Ceballos, Yon Goicoechea, Lorent Saleh, Alfredo Ramos and Andrea González. While some of them were provisionally released in 2018, many remain under house arrest or in prison, sometimes in harsh and inhumane conditions.
The Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López was released in an attempted coup d'état in May 2019, but has not been allowed to return to the political arena. López spent more than three years in prison and two years under house arrest. Since April 2019, he has been a refugee in the Spanish Embassy in Caracas. Another prominent opposition politician and former mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, had been under house arrest since 2015, but managed to flee the country in November 2017, while fellow former mayors Alfredo Ramos, of Iribarren, and Daniel Ceballos, of San Cristóbal, were also imprisoned for extended periods of time. Both have since been released.
In the wake of the presidential elections held in May 2018, which were boycotted by the opposition and whose results have not been recognised by most international actors, including the European Union, the Venezuelan Government tried to improve its image by releasing some political prisoners. In October 2018, Sakharov Prize Laureate Lorent Saleh, a student leader and pro-democracy activist, was released and expelled to Spain after spending more than four years in La Tumba and Heliocoide prisons in Caracas in inhumane conditions.
In January 2020, pro-government militias surrounded the National Assembly facilities and harassed Members who were trying to enter the building, beating them and shooting at their cars. The situation remains tense, with the National Assembly recognised by the international community as the legitimate parliament of Venezuela, operating in parallel with the Constituent Assembly, which supports the regime of Nicolas Maduro.
On 6 December 2020, a new regime controlled Assembly was elected, in a vote deemed not free and fair by the international community. The Democratic Opposition in Venezuela still struggles to dispute free and fair elections. The main opposition candidate, Maria Corina Machado, was legally barred by the regime controlled Supreme Court from running to the 2024 Presidential election, a move condemned by the European Parliament in a resolution approved on 8 February 2024.