Geraldine Chacón

Geraldine Patricia Chacón Villarroel[1] (born 23 December 1993,[2] Caracas, Venezuela) is a lawyer, human rights advocate and student of Liberal Studies at the Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas.[3] Chacón was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International who issued an urgent action calling for her immediate and unconditional release on 27 April 2018.[4]

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Chacón and the second or maternal family name is Villarroel.
Geraldine Chacón
Born
Geraldine Patricia Chacón Villarroel

(1993-12-23) 23 December 1993
Caracas, Venezuela
Alma materUniversidad Metropolitana

Chacón was arrested by the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional, SEBIN) in the early hours of the morning of 1 February 2018, without warrants and under false pretenses. She was taken to El Helicoide for questioning and detained there.[5][3][6] Legal orders for her release, issued by the Venezuelan judicial system, were ignored by the prison authorities. Chacón was finally conditionally released on 1 June 2018.[7] Amnesty continues to consider her at risk and to appeal on her behalf.[8]

Education and career

Geraldine Chacón was motivated to become a lawyer from an early age.[9] At age 14, she participated in local city youth government.[2]

As of 2010[2] Chacón attended the Universidad Metropolitana (Metropolitan University) where she pursued a law degree. Her academic work included the study of 19th century etiquette and citizenship manuals for young people, written by Colombian author Pío del Castillo.[10] She was an exchange student at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) in Paris, France in 2013–2014.[2]

She returned to Metropolitan University to complete her law degree and study Liberal Studies.[2] She was a student in that program at the time of her arrest.[3] On 9 April 2018, the Academic Council of the Metropolitan University published a statement in her support.[1] She could not attend graduation to receive her law degree because she was in prison.[1][11]

Chacón worked as a litigation and court assistant in a legal firm,[3] and as of 2016 in the Legal Consultancy for the Central Bank of Venezuela.[12][2]

Advocacy and human rights

Chacón served as director of her university's newspaper Naranja Pelada (The Peeled Orange).[2]

In 2012, Chacón was the founder of the Amnesty International Venezuela Network at the Universidad Metropolitana (UNIMET Network).[3]

Chacón worked as a volunteer with the Latin American nonprofit organization Un Techo para mi País whose goal is to provide safe housing.[2]

Community Ambassadors Foundation

Around 2015, as part of her community service while at university, Chacón began to volunteer with the Community Ambassadors Foundation (Fundación Embajadores Comunitarios, FEC), an NGO founded in 2008 by university students to empower and support youth from vulnerable communities in Caracas. After completing her service requirements, she continued to work with the organization, eventually becoming one of its directors.[3]

The Community Ambassadors Program implements a program of youth empowerment through the development of skills such as oratory, leadership, negotiation, peaceful resolution of conflicts and critical thinking, organized around the Model of the United Nations.[13][14] It has been reported to have reached over as many as 1000 individuals in 3 cities, 11 communities and 13 educational institutions in Venezuela,[4] including Filas de Mariche (Miranda state), Petare, Chacao, Catia, San Agustín del Sur, La Vega and Antímano (Caracas).[15]

Detention

On 31 January 2018 at noon, SEBIN officials searched the offices of the Community Ambassadors Foundation, without a court order or witnesses to the proceedings. The house of Geraldine Chacón was raided in the early morning of 1 February 2018 by SEBIN officials. Chacón was told that she was going to be interviewed and was taken to El Helicoide, where she was detained, in spite of the officers not having an arrest warrant.[3][16] The homes of other directors of the Community Ambassadors Foundation were also visited by SEBIN.[15][5]

At a hearing held on 5 February 2018 Geraldine Chacón was charged with public gathering and instigation, as was Gregory Hinds, another director of the Community Ambassadors Foundation. Hinds and Chacón were not allowed to see their families or their lawyers, before being brought into court. The court supported their release on bail during the initial investigation, on the condition that two people be appointed to act as guarantors of their reappearance, with appropriate documentation. The requested forms were presented by the guarantors, but Chacón and Hinds were not released.[3][5][16]

On 2 April 2018, a Venezuelan judge issued a release letter for Geraldine Chacón on the grounds that prosecutors had failed to present formal charges within 45 days, as required under Venezuelan law.[5][17] However, officials at the SEBIN facilities, both in the administrative headquarters and in the detention center, repeatedly declared that they had no such order ("no tienen órdenes para acatar") and Chacón remained in arbitrary detention.[3][6] SEBIN officials told relatives and lawyers that they were unaware of the location of any release order, and had not received it.[5]

Prisoner of conscience

Geraldine Chacón was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International and an urgent action was sent out on her behalf as of 27 April 2018.[4] A prisoner of conscience (POC) is a prisoner of conscience or people who, although they have not advocated or resorted to violence, have been imprisoned for being who they are (because of their sexual orientation, origin ethnic, national or social, language, birth, color, sex or economic situation) or by what they believe in (for their beliefs, political ideas or other deep convictions).[18]

Hunger strike

On 16 May 2018, detainees in El Helicoide staged a peaceful protest, barricading themselves in a section of the cells and requesting independent mediation by the Catholic Church and other organizations. One of their requests was that judicial release orders of detainees such as Hinds and Chacón be honored. On 18 May 2018, Chacón was one of 18 women who went on a hunger strike.[5]

Appeal to the United Nations

On 31 May 2018, appeals were presented to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, on behalf of Geraldine Chacón and Gregory Hinds, by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and COFAVIC (Comité de Familiares de Victimas, Relatives of Victims Committee). At that time, Chacón and Hinds had been imprisoned for 120 and 121 days respectively.[19]

Prison conditions

Geraldine Chacón was held in a cell with 25 women, with little or no access to drinking water, clean clothes, sanitary facilities, medicines or other medical services. She was not allowed to go outside in the sunlight, to see family members or to see her lawyers.[19] Information on her condition was available only indirectly through reports from people who managed to visit their relatives in the same cell as Geraldine. It was left to her mother, Natividad Villarroel, to attempt to supply her with 15 liters of water a week, medicines and personal hygiene items.[16] There was concern that the "conditions of detention could constitute torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment".[19]

Release

Chacón was conditionally released on 1 June 2018, one of a group of 87 political prisoners released at that time.[7] However her case has not been formally closed by the Venezuelan authorities, placing her at risk of re-imprisonment. She is not allowed to leave the country. Amnesty considers her to be at risk, and continues to appeal on her behalf.[8]

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References
  1. Academic Council of the Metropolitan University (9 April 2018). "La Unimet manifiesta preocupación por situación de Geraldine Chacón". El Diario de Caracas. Archived from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  2. "GERALDINE CHACÓN: WENEZUELA ZESTAWIENIE FAKTÓW" (PDF). Jagiellonka, Zespół Szkół nr 6. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  3. Buada Blondell, Gabriela (6 April 2018). "GERALDINE CHACÓN TIENE BOLETA DE EXCARCELACIÓN Y DEBE SER LIBERADA INMEDIATAMENTE". Amnistía Internacional Venezuela. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
  4. "URGENT ACTION UA: 81/18 Index: AMR 53/ 8290 /2018 Venezuela" (PDF). Amnesty International. 27 April 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  5. "Venezuela: 2 Activists Held Despite Court Order Detained in Intelligence Headquarters". Human Rights Watch. 22 May 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  6. Prensa Amnistía Internacional (30 April 2018). "Amnistía Internacional | Acción Urgente | Geraldine Chacón y Gregory Hinds | PROVEA". Programa Venezolano de Educación- Acción en Derechos Humanos (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  7. "REPORT ON REPRESSION IN VENEZUELA" (PDF). FORO PENAL. July 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  8. Ferrero, Fabiola (10 December 2018). "42 FIVE WOMEN LEADING THE STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN 2018" (PDF). Rights Today: Why Our Movement Matters. Amnesty International. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  9. "Stand with Geraldine Chacón". Amnesty International. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  10. Chacón Villaroel, Geraldine Patricia; Del Valle Mejías, María Elena (15 November 2014). "El joven modelo: principios de urbanidad para el uso de la juventud de Pío del Castillo". Revista de Comunicación de la SEECI. 0 (35): 1–7. doi:10.15198/seeci.2014.35.1-7. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  11. "Geraldine Chacón". Acción por la Libertad. 3 August 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  12. Moreno Losada, Vanessa (3 April 2018). "Inician campaña por liberación de miembros de Embajadores Comunitarios". Efecto Cocuyo. Archived from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  13. Arenas, Macky (5 February 2018). "Venezuela: The "Community Ambassadors" behind bars". Aleteia Venezuela. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  14. Sposito, Irina (4 July 2016). "Empoderando a través de los modelos de Naciones Unidas. Reportaje sobre Fundación Embajadores Comunitarios". UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA ANDRÉS BELLO. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  15. "Comunicado de la organización Embajadores Comunitarios ante la detención de dos de sus miembros". Programa Venezolano de Educación- Acción en Derechos Humanos. 5 February 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  16. Alvarenga, Luis Miguel (11 May 2018). "Natividad Villarroel: ¿Acaso defender derechos humanos es un delito?". Amnistía Internacional Venezuela. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  17. Liendo, Javier (7 April 2018). "Another Preventable Death". Caracas Chronicles. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  18. Pyrek, Emily (6 December 2018). "Amnesty International Write for Rights Campaign to support 11 persecuted female activists". La Crosse Tribune. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  19. "Venezuela: Joint Press Release: Cases of arbitrary detention of Gregory Hinds and Geraldine Chacón presented to the UN JOINT PRESS RELEASE – THE OBSERVATORY / COFAVIC". OMCT International Secretariat. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2018.

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