Diana Tique bought a plane ticket last week to travel to the border between the two countries to meet her brother after rumors spread that the Venezuelan government would release several Colombians held without trial in Venezuelan prisons.
But hopes of being reunited with her sibling were dashed hours later when she was told that Manuel Tique, a 33-year-old aid worker, was not among the 18 Colombian nationals who were released from Venezuelan prisons on Friday.
“It was devastating,” Tique told The Associated Press at a cafe in Bogota. “I won’t be able to talk to him and see how he’s really doing.” Tique said she has only been allowed two phone conversations with her brother since he was detained in Venezuela last September.
Negotiation Tokens
About 80 foreign nationals are being held without trial in Venezuela, including citizens of Spain, France, Colombia and the Czech Republic, according to human rights groups in Venezuela and the United States.
New York-based Human Rights Watch says the Venezuelan government is using the prisoners as bargaining chips in an attempt to gain political leverage with countries that refused to recognize last year’s re-election of President Nicolas Maduro, a vote the Venezuelan president has been widely accused of rigging.
“These are very serious cases that highlight the regime’s persecution of foreign nationals,” said HRW Americas researcher Martina Rapido Raguzzino.
Humanitarian organizations say many of the foreign nationals detained in Venezuela came to the country as tourists and were detained at border posts.
Most of them are now held in a prison called Rodeo One, where visits and phone calls are rarely allowed. “We know there are conditions at Rodeo One that amount to torture,” Rapido Raguzzino said.
“Not a terrorist”
Manuel Tique was arrested on September 14 last year at a border post in Apure, a large and sparsely populated southern Venezuelan state, after presenting his passport.
The 33-year-old worked for the Danish Refugee Council, an international non-profit organization that helps displaced populations, and had traveled to Venezuela to hold a workshop for local aid groups on how to monitor food and medicine distributions.
Diana Tique said she was never informed by Venezuelan authorities about her brother’s arrest.
But a month after Tique’s arrest, Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello spoke about him on a television program where he accused the Colombian and several other foreigners of being part of a plot to topple Maduro.
Cabello said Tique went to Apure “to recruit mercenaries”, something his family strongly denies.
“My brother is not a terrorist,” Diana Tique said, adding that he had not traveled outside of Colombia before his ill-fated trip to Venezuela.
Prisoner exchange
Tique said she has been unable to find a lawyer to represent her brother in Venezuela, and requests to visit him have gone unanswered.
She fears Tique could face a long prison sentence if he is not released under a deal between the governments of Colombia and Venezuela.
Colombia’s government did not recognize the results of Venezuela’s election last year, although its left-leaning president has strengthened diplomatic ties with the Venezuelan government and criticized the U.S. Navy’s build-up near Venezuela’s coast.
On Friday, Colombia’s foreign ministry said it would continue negotiations with Venezuela to release its citizens from Venezuelan prisons. Venezuelan human rights group Penal Forum reported that 20 Colombian nationals have been jailed without trial in Venezuela.
In July, the United States secured the release of 10 American citizens from Venezuelan prisons in a prisoner swap, including the release of 250 Venezuelan migrants deported by the Trump administration to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Six Americans were also released by Venezuela in February after Trump’s envoy, Richard Grenell, met with Maduro in a visit that critics say helped the Venezuelan president legitimize his rule after widely contested elections last year.
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Associated Press writer Jorge Rueda contributed to this report from Caracas, Venezuela