{"id":2141,"date":"2018-10-11T02:11:22","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T02:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=2141"},"modified":"2018-10-11T02:11:22","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T02:11:22","slug":"a-venezuelan-dissident-dies-in-custody-and-questions-emerge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2018\/10\/11\/a-venezuelan-dissident-dies-in-custody-and-questions-emerge\/","title":{"rendered":"A Venezuelan Dissident Dies in Custody, and Questions Emerge"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CARACAS \u2014 Questions and condemnation of Venezuela\u2019s leadership poured in on Tuesday following the suspicious death of an opposition activist who authorities said evaded justice by throwing himself from the 10th floor of a police building.<\/p>\n

Fernando Alb\u00e1n, a Caracas councilman, was arrested Friday at Caracas\u2019s international airport upon arrival from a trip to New York to galvanize world opinion against President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s chief prosecutor said that Mr. Alb\u00e1n killed himself Monday by leaping from the state police agency\u2019s headquarters, where he was being held for alleged involvement in a plot to kill Mr. Maduro using explosive-laden drones in August.<\/p>\n

But opposition leaders, backed by several foreign governments, have cast doubt on the official version, and accused Mr. Maduro\u2019s government of torturing and murdering the politician.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere are so many different reports and quite a lot of speculation on exactly what happened: whether Mr. Alb\u00e1n committed suicide, whether he was thrown, or what exactly happened,\u201d said Ravina Shamdasani of the United Nations\u2019 human rights office in Geneva.<\/p>\n

While dozens of demonstrators were killed when security forces cracked down on protests last year, the death of a government opponent in state custody shocked many Venezuelans, who associate such deaths with the right-wing dictatorships that governed several countries in South America in the 1970s, and which Mr. Maduro frequently denounces.<\/p>\n

The opposition claims that more than 100 Venezuelans opposed to Maduro are being held as political prisoners, some for more than four years, with little access to the outside world or ability to exercise their legal rights. The government denies they are political prisoners.<\/p>\n

The American State Department said it condemned Mr. Alb\u00e1n\u2019s death, calling it a human rights violation, while Spain\u2019s leftist government called for consultations with the Venezuelan ambassador in Madrid over the death. The United Nations urged officials in Caracas to undertake an impartial investigation to resolve the conflicting versions of how Mr. Alban died.<\/p>\n

As international criticism of Mr. Maduro\u2019s handling of the case grew, Mr. Alb\u00e1n\u2019s family, fellow politicians and family members of other jailed activists paid a final tribute to him Tuesday in a ceremony at the opposition-controlled Congress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A who\u2019s who of opposition leaders took turns filing past Mr. Alb\u00e1n\u2019s coffin, which was draped in the Venezuelan flag. His grieving sister brought a framed portrait of her deeply religious brother shadowed by an image of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Hours after his death, a few dozen of Mr. Alb\u00e1n\u2019s supporters gathered outside the police building yelling \u201cMaduro killer!\u201d and contending that Mr. Alb\u00e1n had been murdered. They later assembled outside Caracas\u2019s morgue to demand his body be handed over as rumors spread he would be cremated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt this was an assassination,\u201d the opposition leader Julio Borges said in a video filmed from exile in neighboring Colombia, without providing evidence of his claim. \u201cThe only thing left for this government is torture, violence and destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Borges, who led the delegation to the U.N., said Mr. Alb\u00e1n\u2019s wife told him that her husband had been under intense pressure to testify against him in the ongoing investigation into the alleged plot to kill Mr. Maduro using two drones loaded with explosives.<\/p>\n

More than two dozen people have been jailed on suspicion of involvement in the plot, which Mr. Maduro claims was orchestrated by Mr. Borges with the support of Colombia and the United States.<\/p>\n

The chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Alb\u00e1n\u2019s death, which he classified as a suicide.<\/p>\n

In brief comments on state TV, he said Mr. Alb\u00e1n was in the headquarters of Venezuela\u2019s intelligence police waiting to be transferred to a courthouse when he asked to use a bathroom. He then threw himself from the 10th floor of the building, officials said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Senator Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who was in Venezuela for meetings with Mr. Maduro and his opponents, called Mr. Alb\u00e1n\u2019s death while in the government\u2019s custody \u201cdisturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government has a responsibility to ensure all understand how that could have happened,\u201d he said in a message on Twitter.<\/p>\n

Also expressing concern was Venezuela\u2019s Catholic bishops\u2019 conference and Luis Almagro, the head of the Organization of American States and a sharp critic of Venezuela\u2019s government. He called Mr. Alb\u00e1n\u2019s death \u201cthe direct responsibility of a torturing and homicidal regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friends said the councilman was a family man and devout Catholic.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlb\u00e1n is a very Christian person, with deep spiritual convictions that go contrary to a decision to take one\u2019s life,\u201d said Joel Garcia, a lawyer who met with Mr. Alb\u00e1n the night before in the tribunal, and said he seemed calm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CARACAS \u2014 Questions and condemnation of Venezuela\u2019s leadership poured in on Tuesday following the suspicious death of an opposition activist who authorities said evaded justice by throwing himself from the 10th floor of a police building. Fernando Alb\u00e1n, a Caracas councilman, was arrested Friday at Caracas\u2019s international airport upon arrival from a trip to New York to galvanize world opinion… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-2141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-ny-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2142,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141\/revisions\/2142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}