Nine years in prison, 12 years apart: Time has become an unforgiving executioner for the Caguaripano family

For Irene Olazo, the hardest part of Juan Carlos Caguaripano’s imprisonment is not only the nine years he has spent behind bars. It is the 12 years in which family life continued without him.

Caguaripano, a captain in Venezuela’s National Bolivarian Armed Forces, led the uprising at Forte Paramacay. Security forces arrested him in Caracas on August 11, 2017, five days after the revolt. He had already gone into hiding in 2014, which Olazo said was intended to protect the family after their four-month-old daughter survived an attempted kidnapping.

Their daughter, Samantha Nazareth, did not have physical contact with her father from the age of four months until after his arrest, when she was three and a half. Olazo said the family had to live with an absence they never accepted as permanent. His parents grew old without their son, while his mother eventually lost the ability to recognize people. Olazo learned to raise their daughter, work and speak publicly while navigating migration under the fear of persecution.

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The hardest thing about these nine years is that life did not stop. When they took Juan Carlos, life continued, but we had to learn to live with an absence we never accepted as permanent.

Caguaripano, described as one of Venezuela’s most prominent military political prisoners, was sentenced on December 19, 2025, to 30 years in prison alongside other defendants in the Forte Paramacay case. His defense appeal was admitted, and a remote hearing was held on August 26 after a delay of nearly five hours. No immediate verdict followed.

“The hardest thing about these nine years is that life did not stop. When they took Juan Carlos, life continued, but we had to learn to live with an absence we never accepted as permanent,” Olazo told El Nacional. She is seeking justice and full reparation, without political swaps.

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My daughter, from four months old, had no physical contact with her father. Therefore, we are not only talking about nine years, we are talking about 12 years in which time did not stop.