Are they political prisoners or political prisoners?

Published at: 15/11/2024 04:20 PM

There are differences between a political prisoner and a political prisoner. In this article, we intend to clarify them in order to avoid the continuous manipulation of the media in the service of American interests .

According to the Larousse Dictionary, the strict definition of the word prisoner refers to “ an individual who is locked in a prison, deprived of his liberty for having committed a crime classified as such in his country”. For its part, "political, refers to the administration of public affairs or to the government of the State”.

In this regard, the Academic Memory Journal of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) conceptualizes a political prisoner as “a person who is confined to a prison for the expression of his political ideas contrary to those of the current government. Usually, this is someone who is part of a political party, a union, a social movement or other kind of group.”

Thus, according to this concept, a political prisoner is the victim of a violation of freedom of expression or freedom of thought and it is common for a prisoner to be described as a politician when his arrest is not linked to a specific and proven crime or when his punishment is exaggerated because of his ideology.

Also, the Latin American Council for Social Sciences (CLACSO) explained that “it is attributed to being a political prisoner for making public thoughts contrary to those held by the current rulers, or for carrying out actions aimed at promoting regime change, political prisoners are punished by the authorities. However, it is important to bear in mind that certain activities are punishable by law, so the sanction may be just and correct from a regulatory point of view.”

However, we must bear in mind that a imprisoned politician is not always a political prisoner. If an official or political leader is tried for an act of corruption or for a murder, to name two possibilities, and is found guilty, he can be sent to jail and this crime is not linked to his activism. In this sense, calling to invade your country, coordinating an economic blockade, replacing and ignoring public authorities, organizing and financing acts of terrorism, are crimes defined in Venezuelan laws.

According to this, the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, emphasized last Monday that “no one should forget that the extreme right hired and paid the Comanditos, led by María Corina Machado to generate chaos and violence in the country, the days after the presidential election of last July 28.”

In his program With Maduro+, the president stressed that “ terrorists are convicted and confessed, there is evidence, with threats on social networks. These terrorists who killed and threatened are now trying to be called political prisoners.”

In the same way, he added that “it is the extreme right who wants to call these criminals political prisoners, I make an appeal as Head of State to the Public Ministry, to the Citizen Power, if there are any cases to rectify and review, there must also be justice, in case any procedural error has arisen,” said the president.

It is important to emphasize that in Venezuela there are no politicians arrested for expressing their ideas against the Government, even President Nicolás Maduro asked the National Assembly that “tough and strict anti-fascist laws must be designed, because here you cannot prosecute people because of their way of thinking or because of their ideas, emphasized last Monday night on his Maduro+ program.

In the same vein, the first vice-president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, also declared on Monday 11-11-24 that “in Venezuela there are no politicians imprisoned, no, there are violent criminals here who murdered 27 people and are in detention, there they murdered two of our women with great malice, with great cruelty and evil, as if to send a message; they killed a National Guard and wounded more than 20 people across the country.”

However, according to the media, the term “political prisoner” is used in accordance with the dominant interests of the world right and to be clear about it.

Examples of political prisoners

Julian Assange: The founder of Wikileaks was arrested in the British capital on a federal conspiracy charge, as he published more than 700,000 secret documents that helped expose war crimes perpetrated by the US government.

San Suu Kyi : She remained under house arrest in Burma for 15 years because she was considered by the government as someone “capable of violating common peace and stability ”.

Antonio Gramsci : Italian left-wing writer sentenced to 20 years in prison after the enactment of emergency laws during the Benito Mussolini regime.

Bertrand Russell : Sentenced to prison in the United Kingdom for his pacifist positions during the First World War.

Eugene Debs : Leader of the extinct Socialist Party of America, USA and convicted for publicly expressing his opposition to the First World War.

Milagro Sala : The social leader celebrates 8 years as a political prisoner and was arrested for having participated in a camp in front of the Government House in Jujuy, Argentina.

Gerardo Hernández , Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González are known as “the five Cuban heroes” who were unjustly arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on September 18, 1998. The five Cuban citizens that the United States arrested for preventing violent actions that were carried out by terrorist groups from U.S. territory against the island.

However, none of the reasons for which these people were arrested have to their credit the crimes associated with María Corina Machado and Edmundo González.

Crimes such as: usurpation of functions, forging of public documents, incitement to disobey laws, computer crimes, criminal conspiracy and conspiracy to usurp the powers of the electoral body and publish alleged forged or falsified documents, sabotage and damage to systems and coordination of destabilization plans that included assassination and a failed coup attempt to promote a bloodbath in the country and thus justify foreign intervention, crimes against independence, the security of the nation and treason to the Fatherland.

As we can see, these acts are not actions for thinking differently, they are violations defined in Venezuelan law, and once these crimes have been proven, could they be classified as political prisoners?

AMELYREN BASABE/Mazo News Team