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🇻🇪 Venezuela /Crime & Justice

NGO demands answers on photographer's disappearance in Venezuela's Táchira state

From El Nacional · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Venezuelan photographer Jorgen Guanares Delgado has been missing since August 2, 2024, in Táchira state.
  • The NGO Un Mundo Sin Mordaza criticizes authorities for a lack of official information and transparency regarding his disappearance.
  • The NGO alleges Guanares was threatened and disappeared after documenting political activities and participating in election monitoring.

The Venezuelan NGO Un Mundo Sin Mordaza has voiced deep concern over the disappearance of photographer Jorgen Yoneyker Guanares Delgado. He was last seen on August 2, 2024, in Rubio, Táchira state, and his whereabouts remain unknown.

Un Mundo Sin Mordaza expresses its deep concern over the disappearance of Jorgen Yoneyker Guanares Delgado (...) We denounce the absolute institutional silence and lack of official information regarding his whereabouts, health status, or legal situation, in a context that points to a pattern of forced disappearance.

— Un Mundo Sin MordazaStatement shared on X (formerly Twitter) by the NGO.

The organization condemned the "institutional silence" and the absence of clear official statements, suggesting a pattern of institutional opacity surrounding his case. Un Mundo Sin Mordaza stated that forced disappearances are grave human rights violations that destroy families and aim to silence civil and citizen rights.

After documenting the activities of María Corina Machado and participating in the vote count of the July 28 elections, Jorgen disappeared after receiving prior threats. Since then, his mother, María Émely Delgado, has visited prisons and institutions without receiving a response.

— Un Mundo Sin MordazaDetails provided by the NGO regarding the circumstances of Guanares's disappearance.

According to the NGO, Guanares may have been targeted due to his documentation of political activities, including those of María Corina Machado, and his involvement in monitoring votes during the July 28, 2024, elections. His family has been searching for him without success.

The burden of the search should not fall on a helpless mother; authorities have the obligation to investigate with the utmost diligence and provide clear answers.

— Un Mundo Sin MordazaThe NGO's statement on the responsibility of the state.

Un Mundo Sin Mordaza emphasized that documenting public activities and participating in elections should not lead to persecution. They called on the Venezuelan state to immediately release information about Guanares's location and verify his well-being. The NGO also urged the Public Prosecutor's Office to conduct an independent investigation and called on international mechanisms to monitor the post-election persecution case.

We demand that the State immediately inform of the whereabouts and guarantee proof of life for Jorgen Guanares, we urge the Prosecutor's Office to conduct an independent and exhaustive investigation, and we call on international mechanisms to maintain urgent monitoring of this case of post-election persecution.

— Un Mundo Sin MordazaDemands made by the NGO to Venezuelan authorities and international bodies.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by El Nacional in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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