The UN rapporteur noted that Chavismo prevented him from visiting detention centres

Special Rapporteur L United Nations (United Nations) regarding the right to food, Michael Fakhry, He confirmed on Wednesday that Nicolas Maduro's government had prevented him from visiting detention centers and that authorities had constantly changed their agenda during his two-week visit to the country.

“Regarding the detention centers, the government would not allow me to go. The authorities simply kept changing my schedule and often we did not know where to go.” The rapporteur said in a press conference presented after several days of meetings with representatives of the executive authority, non-governmental organizations and other civil groups.

Despite this refusal, he described the situation of those deprived of liberty without clarifying the sources of information used or whether he would provide new details about them in presenting his findings next March before the United Nations Human Rights Council.

In this sense, he said he was “seriously” concerned about the food security of prisoners, especially about the condition of detainees in preventive detention centers that hold nearly twice as many prisoners as they are at capacity, according to a report submitted by the NGO last week. Window to Freedom (UVL).

Fakhri stressed that they are “temporary centers that do not include facilities to feed them (…) and the authorities do not provide the detainees with any food, water, bathroom, or health care,” calling for speedy trials of these people as well as them. He transferred them to prisons, where “the situation is somewhat better.”

He explained that due to judicial delays, these centers have become designated places of detention, so some people spend prison sentences for several years in these cells, which are “inhumane and degrading and may constitute torture.”

When asked about the reasons that prevented him from visiting these cells – in which 17 prisoners died in 2023 due to health problems, according to UVL – he urged the government to ask about the reasons for its continued refusal.

For his part, he explained that he overcame “logistical problems” to attend some meetings, and expressed his “frustration” with the government given that officials “prioritized protocol more,” causing him to waste hours at official lunches and at photo events.

With information from EFE