In 1988, the European Parliament established and awarded for the first time (to the leader of South Africa Nelson Mandela and the Soviet dissident Anatoly Marchenko) the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. In the same year he was born in Venezuela Laurent Salle, who in 2017 was awarded the Sakharov Prize along with seven other activists for their fight against the authoritarian, left-wing, regime of
When Salle was awarded, he had already spent three years in Caracas’ infamous prison, the Helicoid – so named because of the shape of the building, which was originally designed as a shopping center – where he was tortured by the regime. In 2018, the Maduro regime cited the activist’s suicide attempt and released him. During his four years in prison, Salle was never tried, and his trial was adjourned a total of 52 times.
In view of the developments in the kidnapping of Maduro during a US military operation on January 3, Salle spoke to “Vima” by phone from the outskirts of Madrid. He agreed to talk about why “I no longer have any relatives in Venezuela. Otherwise I wouldn’t be talking to you. No one will speak to you from Venezuela. The situation remains fluid, people are afraid.” He himself admits that he communicates with Venezuelans in his country through third parties.
After Maduro’s kidnapping, the Trump administration appointed the former vice president as interim president of the country Delsey Rodriguez. “The Americans, in addition to the impressive military operation to capture Maduro, also have a political plan. They understand that there cannot be a post-colonialism in Venezuela overnight. They can’t Maria Corina Machado and the Edmundo Gonzalezthe opposition leaders, to return to Venezuela, even though they have won the 2024 elections. The military is still controlled by the regime. The transition must be gradual and when elections are held the current regime must recognize their result” he tells us.
“What is urgent is to release the last political prisoner and to close the places of torture. And this must happen quickly for national reconciliation to occur. We must not let Trump do what he wants. You saw the photo of Delsey Rodriguez with the director of the CIA.” So far 100 political prisoners have been released. “There are at least 100 more in prisons, not sure of the exact number. What we do know is that so far no blood has been shed.”.
We ask him if, after January 3rd, the famous “Tun Tun operations”, in which police officers go to citizens’ homes to check their cellphones to detect anything that can be considered against the regime on their social media accounts, have stopped in Venezuela. “They are supposed to have stopped, but one cannot be sure” he answers.
Systematic control
Salle was ten years old when the socialist initiator of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, Hugo Chavezrose to power. Growing up, Saleh saw his country militarized and the regime systematically control the population. As a student at the School of International Trade, the young man who grew up with his mother, who is originally from Palestine, led the student movement for freedom and was interested in the release of political prisoners in Venezuela. “In 2008 I started researching the topic with my fellow students. I went to almost all the prisons in Venezuela, met as many political prisoners as I could, started gathering evidence to proceed with formal complaints. Among the prisoners were mayors, trade unionists.”
Human rights are not a matter of Right or Left, says Salle. And it saddens him that he has to explain this many times, especially to Spanish leftists. “My case was a serious human rights violation”.
When asked how he overcame the personal trauma of imprisonment and torture, he answers:You learn to live with it. I have three children – six, five and three years old. I met my wife a few months before I was kidnapped while in Colombia. He waited for me until I was released.” He wants to return to Venezuela when he is not in danger of being arrested. «I would like to work with crops, I learned a lot about organic farming in Spain and I would like to apply them in my country.”
In Spain Salle presented “Caja en concreto” (“Concrete Cage”), a play he wrote in prison. “We presented it in Venice, Milan, Palermo and Rome. I hope we can present it one day in Athens as well.”
