For Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albarez Miguel Rodríguez Torres, Hugo Chávez’s former interior minister who arrived in Madrid on Sunday after his release, “is one of the 70,000 Venezuelans who have come to our country thanks to the efforts made by the Spanish government. For Laurent Saleh, a Venezuelan human rights activist living in Spain since 2018, the former head of Sebin (Bolivarian Intelligence Service) “is responsible for crimes against humanity, he is not like the Venezuelans who are fleeing poverty, hunger, persecution, crime, dictatorship and its violence , they have nothing to do with a general who has been killing all his life.

For Minister Albarez Rodriguez Torres, who oversaw the creation of the sinister La Tumba underground prison where Laurent Saleh spent two years and six months, will be able to benefit from a statute governing Venezuelans that “allows residence almost automatically.” For Venezuelan activist Rodriguez Torres – “a military coup, like Franco, who seized power by force.” Laurent Saleh, 2017 Sakharov Prize winner, explains how someone who was Chávez’s favorite minister “crushed dissident voices in Venezuela; created Sebin, an organ that tortures and kills, according to the High Commissioner for Human Rights.”

Rodriguez Torres spent five years in prison. After Chávez’s death, he fell out with his heir Nicolas Maduro and left the government in 2014. In 2017, he created the Movement for Democracy. The rivalry went as far as his arrest for “acting against the world”. They attributed the crimes of incitement to sedition, treason, espionage, and the bombing of a military establishment. The former head of Sebin thanked the former president of the Spanish government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, for his efforts in a video message after his release.

“This reception by the Spanish government shows that Rodriguez Zapatero has a lot of power,” says Saleh. “He is an ambassador for Latin American dictatorships, especially the Venezuelan dictatorship and its drug trafficking and extortion networks.”

It is illogical that the Spanish government, instead of achieving the freedom of the Spaniards, looks after the executioner.

For Laurent Saleh, who was hardened in the student struggle against the Chavista regime even before he came of age, the release and admission of the former Chavista minister in Spain is a “mockery”. “You can’t put in the same place and want to match the military with a long track record of crimes against humanity with thousands of victims. The Spanish government is inconsistent, instead of achieving freedom and guarantees for the imprisoned Spaniards, it looks after the tormentor. How would you feel if it was a franchise general or a Francoist torture pioneer?

Maria Auxiliadora Delgado, Angela Exposito and Jorge Alaeto Bigo are three Spanish prisoners who remain in Maduro’s prisons, the Venezuelan Penitentiary Forum confirms. All three have dual citizenship of Venezuela and Spain. Maria Auxiliadora Delgado went through trials, including a feigned release. Together with her military husband Juan Carlos Marrufo, she was arrested for financing terrorism, but the charge was dropped due to lack of evidence. Exposito, who was engaged in teaching activities, was sentenced to 24 years in prison in court without evidence. Alaiyeto has been locked up since 2017. The Spanish government and Zapatero should fight for them, not for repressor Hugo Chavez, Saleh said.

The activist clarifies that he personally has no complaints against the Spanish government, which helped to release him and welcomed him in October 2018. He has always felt secure and uses a Spanish passport. If I had the opportunity, I would personally explain to Minister Albarez who is really the last chavismo released from prison. Right at a press conference on Tuesday, Albarez, who will meet with a delegation from the Venezuelan opposition on Sunday, stressed that the dialogue should lead to the release of all those who are not behind the crimes.

Saleh recalls how the personal bodyguards of Miguel Rodríguez Torres were responsible for the murder of students on February 12, 2014. And mentions Jorge Redman and Bassil da Costa Frias, who were killed during a demonstration near the General Prosecutor’s Office. “Here in Spain are the attorney general of Chavez and Maduro, the ombudsman and the head of Sebin, the three creators of the system of human rights violations that have developed in Venezuela,” he points out. “They are sworn enemies of human rights activists. They are here. Very crazy.” And, as indicated, they live in luxury, in the best areas of Madrid.

Laurent Saleh, who has been living in Ribadeo for two and a half years with his family, could be with them. “The worst thing in this case is that they are in Spain as privileged people, they do not tolerate the hardships of most Venezuelans living here. You have to watch the money of these criminals, they are not ordinary Venezuelans.

Having received the Sakharov Prize, Laurent Saleh, who has an artistic vocation, staged a performance in which he wanted to convey what his life or unlife in the Grave was like. AT white torture he describes how he was subjected to a method of psychological pressure designed to drive a person insane and lose his identity.

“I persevered because of my faith in God and because of my mother, an inspirational woman,” Saleh says. “When he came to me for the first time, he was in the bones, and he did not have me on his feet. I tried my best not to let him notice, but I couldn’t help it. And she told me: “Do not break. We got out of it.”

On his behalf, Saleh declares: “I would rather die than betray the cause. That’s why they say I’m crazy.”

From there, he left, like everyone else, “when he wants to, because there is no legal order.” Founder of Operación Libertad, he has been involved in protests, especially since the closure of Radio Caracas TV in 2007. He managed to leave for Colombia, but in 2014 he was deported by the government of Juan Manuel Santos. “I knew that I was facing a dictatorship and that it had a price. I thought the price was worth it.”

Millions of people hate politics. It’s so unfair”

Now he views Venezuelan politics with disgust. “Millions of people hate politics. It’s so unfair. In these cells are completely innocent people who were neighbors of someone from the opposition, and they worry about Miguel Rodríguez Torres, who was the victim of settling scores between criminal gangs, but by no means is he an innocent person.

He admits that he feels “powerless and frustrated”. Born in 1988, Venezuela has known only dictatorship. He has never been a member of any political party, but his commitment to human rights. He created the Saleh Institute. He is merciless to the “complicity” of the Venezuelan opposition, which he accuses of embezzling money for humanitarian aid, and to the media, which looked the other way and ignored the complaints of various organizations.

“The opposition lives by conflict and does not reflect the fears of the majority. The Venezuelan crisis is business. And the dialogues are the show. Everyone wants to get away from Maduro, but not change the system, so we Venezuelans are on the verge of resignation. This does not mean that he has completely resigned himself,” he concludes after his seclusion among the sheep and horses in Galicia.