An international campaign is underway to call for the release of a leading politician and activist who graduated from university in Bristol just over four years ago, and is currently being held in Venezuela with claims he’s being tortured.
Jesús Armas completed his Masters at the University of Bristol in 2019 and 2020, and proudly displayed his graduation certificate on his social media. Since then, he’s gone on to become a leading figure in politics in his native Venezuela, where there have been years of political violence and protest, and President Nicolas Maduro has ruled as an authoritarian leader since 2013.
Armas played an important role in the opposition campaign during the elections in July this year, with opponents of the president claiming they had won the election but it had been rigged by the president, who has held on to power. Friends and supporters of Jesús Armas say he was ‘kidnapped and disappeared’ by the Government forces on December 10, and since then a campaign calling for his release has been growing in Venezuela, the US and the UK.
“Armas is a longtime defender of freedom and democracy and a personal friend,” said Annabel Deegan, a former CNN editor. “I met him during a fellowship we did together at the McCain Institute last year. He is also an Obama Foundation scholar. He completed his Masters at Bristol University after receiving a Chevening Fellowship.
Venezuelan politician and campaigner Jesus Arnas, in Bristol in 2019 and 2020
(Image: Jesus Arnas/Instagram)
“We now know Armas is being held at El Helicoide, a well-known torture centre in Caracas under the custody of the SEBIN, Venezuela’s political police. His family claim he has been tortured by them during the days he was forcibly disappeared.
“Jesús has previously written from hiding about the repression in Venezuela including the imprisonment of campaigners. Opposition activists have collected evidence that proves Edmundo González was elected,” she added.
Opposition campaigners in Venezuela claim that, since the July elections, and in the run up to President Maduro’s re-inauguration day in early January, more than 2,000 people involved in the election campaign have been detained.
The man who stood against President Maduro in the presidential elections in the summer, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, has fled the country and sought asylum in Spain, saying he feared for his safety. Another opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, called on Armas to be released. On her X account, she said the politician “was kidnapped tonight by agents of the regime,” adding: “We will not rest until we free him and all Venezuelans.”