31 imprisoned soldiers in Venezuela go on hunger strike

Thirty-one imprisoned soldiers in Venezuela have begun an indefinite hunger strike to demand their release, the newspaper El País reported on Tuesday.

The initial group, 24 sergeants of the Bolivarian National Guard, has spent more than seven years in prison at the Ramo Verde Military Prison in Los Teques. They denounce procedural delays and say they already completed their sentences on October 24, after seven years and nine months in prison. After the protest was called on November 9, six more soldiers linked to other cases joined.

The sergeants were arrested for the so-called "Cotiza rebellion", a failed attempt at insubordination against the Chavista regime in early 2019. Opposition leader María Corina Machado, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and leader Dinorah Figuera expressed their support for the hunger strikers, and the NGO Foro Penal warned about their health and prison conditions. The government of Delcy Rodríguez has not yet commented.

It is the second hunger strike by military political prisoners in just over a month: on October 24, another 27 officers stopped eating to denounce threats. Although some 1,000 people have been released in 2026 under the amnesty, more than 300 political prisoners remain behind bars, most of them military.

Photo: El País

Source: El País