MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela confirms death of political prisoner Víctor Hugo Quero, ten months after he died

His mother, 82-year-old Carmen Teresa Navas, had submitted multiple petitions to the prosecutor's office and the Ombudsman's Office.

Venezuela's Ministry for Prison Services confirmed on Thursday the death of political prisoner Víctor Hugo Quero Navas, a 51-year-old merchant, nearly ten months after he died in state custody and following more than a year of forced disappearance complaints filed by his family.

According to the official statement, Quero Navas was detained on 3 January 2025 and held at the Rodeo I Judicial Internment Center near Caracas. On 15 July that year he was transferred to the Carlos Arvelo Military Hospital after presenting upper gastrointestinal bleeding and acute fever. The ministry said he died on 24 July at 11:25 p.m. of acute respiratory failure caused by pulmonary thromboembolism. He was buried on 30 July at the Jardín La Puerta Memorial Park. The date inscribed on the grave, however, reads 27 July, as observed by an AFP reporter at the cemetery.

Prison authorities justified the lack of notification by claiming the detainee “did not provide information on family ties and no relative came forward to request a formal visit.” The rights group Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón dismissed that account, noting that his mother, 82-year-old Carmen Teresa Navas, had submitted multiple petitions to the prosecutor's office and the Ombudsman's Office.

Carmen Navas spent months traveling between prisons, courts and government agencies demanding proof her son was alive. Days before the official confirmation, she held a press conference alongside the rights group Foro Penal in which she publicly repeated her question: where was her son.

Foro Penal's deputy director, Gonzalo Himiob, told EFE that Quero was intercepted by officers of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) in a Caracas square. The detention was reportedly linked to military service he performed in 2023, a background that triggered a judicial case for treason, conspiracy and terrorism. The Second Control Court refused to include him in the amnesty law promoted in February by interim President Delcy Rodríguez, ruling that those charges fell outside the benefit's scope.

On 18 April 2026, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued Resolution 27/2026, granting precautionary measures for Quero and his mother on grounds they faced a risk of irreparable harm. The state did not respond to the order, even though the detainee was already dead.

Foro Penal reports that 776 political prisoners have been released since January, with 186 freed after the Amnesty Law took effect. Several rights organizations have demanded an independent investigation in line with the Minnesota Protocol.