A Venezuelan court has sentenced a doctor to 30 years in prison for criticising Nicolás Maduro’s government in a WhatsApp audio message. The case was reported by the human rights organisation JEP and picked up by the AFP news agency.
Dr. Marggie Orozco, 65, received the maximum sentence on charges of “treason, incitement to hatred, and conspiracy.” Someone reported her to authorities after she expressed views considered disloyal to the Maduro administration. The contents of the message and the identity of the person she sent it to have not been made public.
Arrested Amidst Unrest
Orozco was arrested in August of last year in San Juan de Colón, a town in western Venezuela. The timing mattered — her detention came during a wave of unrest that followed Maduro’s re-election, a result that drew accusations of electoral fraud from the opposition and from governments around the world. Around 2,400 people were arrested during those protests, though most were freed within a few months.
After the unrest died down, Maduro called on supporters to report what he called “fascists” — a term routinely aimed at opposition figures. Human rights advocates say Orozco has suffered two heart attacks while in detention. The organisation Foro Penal puts the current number of “political prisoners” in Venezuela’s jails at roughly 882, a figure that speaks for itself.
