PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. - Human rights activists in Venezuela are demanding the release of independent journalist Luis Carlos Diaz.

Naky Soto, his wife, said Venezuelan intelligence agents brought her handcuffed husband home after detaining him while he was riding his bicycle on Monday, raided their home on Tuesday and took him away again.

"Big and scary escalation of Maduro's war on the press, as he looks for blackout scapegoats," New York Times reporter Anatoly Kumanaev wrote on Twitter. "Luis Carlos is one of the sharpest media observers in the country. Detained by secret police for his coverage of the blackout. No officials, of course, fired or even rebuked for the crisis."

Venezuela's National Union of Press Workers reported the agents with the Bolivarian Intelligence Service, or SEBIN, working with military counterintelligence agents, or DGCIM, took him about 5:30 p.m., Monday, and when they returned with him to his home they confiscated computers, a pen drive, cell phones and cash.

Soto said Diaz reported he was hurt during his detention. During the 2:30 a.m. raid, the union reported agents also held several people at gunpoint and identified them as Marco Ruiz, a spokesman for the union, journalists Lila Vanorio and Luz Mely Reyes and Federico Black, a communications consultant.

"Venezuelan authorities should immediately release Luis Carlos Díaz, return his confiscated equipment, and stop this absurd campaign blaming their own failures on critical journalists," said CPJ Central and South America Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick. "Without electricity, much of the Venezuelan public is already deprived of access to information from TV, radio, and the internet in the midst of an emergency. Harassing and jailing journalists will only exacerbate the crisis."

Spain's Foreign Ministry told The Associated Press it is trying to find out from Venezuelan authorities why Diaz, a journalist with dual Spanish and Venezuelan nationality has been detained.

Soto and other supporters of freedom of speech in Venezuela organized an 11 a.m. meeting outside of the prosecutor's office in Caracas to demand his release. She asked the United Nations' Commission on Human Rights to intervene.

According to the Instituto Presan y Sociedad, or IPYS, a nongovernmental organization monitoring freedom of expression in Venezuela, 40 journalist have been the victims of arbitrary detentions in Venezuela this year alone.

With journalists from around the world, including Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, the hashtag Liberen A Luis Carlos, or Free Luis Carlos, was trending on social media Tuesday morning. The independent journalist broadcasts live on Union Radio Noticias and, according to El Pais, he is a dual citizen of Spain and Venezuela. </s> Bachelet “concerned” about the arrest of Venezuelan journalist and activist Luis Carlos Díaz

Luis Carlos Diaz, a Venezuelan journalist who is an expert in networks and critical of the Nicolás Maduro regime, was arrested on Monday, without capture order, by the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) after leaving his radio program, denounced his wife and colleague Naky Soto. On Tuesday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, referred to the arrest and asked the authorities for “urgent access” for her technical mission in Venezuela to Díaz.

I am deeply concerned about the alleged detention of the reputed journalist by the Venezuelan intelligence services, and for his well-being, the High Commissioner said on Twitter.

Since Monday, the technical work mission of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) prior to Bachelet's visit has been in Venezuela. The work team will meet with government leaders, representatives of the National Assembly, with civil society organizations and with victims of human rights violations, the international organization told in a press release.

Diaz, who is accused by the Maduro’s regime of committing computer crimes by participating in alleged sabotage to the Venezuelan electricity grid that has left most of the country in shadows since last week, is being held at El Helicoide, intelligence headquarters.

On Monday, Diosdado Cabello, Chavismo strong man and president of the pro-government National Constituent Assembly, showed a video on his television program Con el Mazo Dando where the prominent journalist appears explaining what a blackout is, accusing him of having explained the plan that an opposition sector used to generate the “sabotage” that was recorded on Thursday.

Díaz was missing for several hours. Neither his wife nor his colleagues knew anything about him until the SEBIN showed up with him handcuffed in his house, to conduct a raid in which they seized and removed computers, pen drives, cell phones, money, and a hard drive, his wife reported. </s> Luis Carlos Díaz, who was charged with inciting violence and ordered not to leave the country, was released late on Tuesday

This article is more than 5 months old

This article is more than 5 months old

A prominent Venezuelan journalist who had been reporting on the country’s escalating political crisis and electricity blackout out has been seized by secret police, sparking international condemnation.

US pulls all staff from Venezuela as Maduro blames blackout on 'demonic' Trump plot Read more

Luis Carlos Díaz went missing at about 5.30pm on Monday after leaving the radio station where he worked in the capital, Caracas.

A social media hunt ensued with Twitter users demanding # DóndeEstáLuisCarlos or # WhereIsLuisCarlos.

Fellow journalists confirmed Díaz had been taken by members of Venezuela’s intelligence service, Sebin.

He was charged with inciting violence and released late on Tuesday. A judge ordered him not to leave the country and prohibited him from making public statements.

Venezuela’s National Press Workers Union said agents raided Díaz’s home shortly before dawn, seizing computers and pen drives as the handcuffed journalist looked on.

Díaz was reportedly held in the notorious El Helicoide political prison.

Luz Mely Reyes, an internationally acclaimed Venezuelan journalist, told the Guardian her colleague’s detention was part of an escalating war on the press being waged by the country’s embattled leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Maduro is fighting for his political life after an audacious challenge from a young opposition leader called Juan Guaidó, who most western governments now recognize as Venezuela’s rightful interim president.

“I think one of the things [Maduro] is trying to achieve is to intimidate [journalists] and ensure the stories about what is going on in Venezuela are not told,” Reyes said. “Repression against the press has been growing.”

Last week, one day before much of Venezuela was paralyzed by a massive power cut, an American freelance journalist who had worked for the Daily Telegraph was deported after being seized at his home in Caracas.



A rightwing German journalist, Billy Six, has reportedly been held in El Helicoide since being detained on suspicion of espionage last year.

“It is just a joke,” his father, Edward Six, told the Guardian in a recent interview. “Journalism is not a crime.”

'We call it survival': Venezuelans improvise solutions as blackout continues Read more

Díaz’s detention – which authorities have yet to explain – triggered condemnation in and outside of Venezuela, with Guaidó denouncing Maduro’s “persecution” of journalists.

The UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet tweeted that she was “deeply worried” by the detention of Díaz, adding that UN officials in Caracas had urgently requested access to him.

During a brief conversation in the early hours of Tuesday, Díaz reportedly told Naky Soto, his journalist wife, he had been detained near the Korean embassy in Caracas while riding his bicycle home. Agents said he was suspected of “IT offenses”.

Last Friday, Maduro’s second-in-command, Diosdado Cabello, published a conspiratorial video on Twitter insinuating Díaz was part of a “rancid” rightwing US-backed plot to destroy Venezuela’s electricity network.

Reyes said she feared Díaz’s detention would not be the last, as the political situation in Venezuela deteriorated. “This is not a game – this is a very serious situation that puts us on alert.” </s> Activist Lorent Gomez Saleh has been freed and secretly transferred by Venezuelan authorities to the international airport of Maiquetía, one hour from Caracas, to be “referred” to Spain.

Arrested since 2014, Saleh was detained by the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) and was banished by order of the self-proclaimed Truth Commission of the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) after a statement released on the government television VTV. The student leader, president of the NGO Operation Freedom and winner of the 2017 Sakharov Prize, was never proven any crime after his audience was deferred more than half a hundred times.

For the mother, Yamile Saleh, it was not possible to meet him, she only received a phone call in which he heard his voice from the prison where Gómez Saleh was detained, waiting to meet his son after knowing unofficially on Friday that the activist would be released.

According to the statement issued by VTV, Saleh was subjected to various psychological evaluations in which he had manifested violent, destructive and suicidal behaviors that put his life at risk.

The exile of Saleh has been described as unconstitutional, by the NGO Penal Forum.

“According to our Constitution, in the final paragraph of Article 50: No act of the Public Power may establish the penalty of estrangement of national territory against any Venezuelan. In other words, banishment is prohibited, Gonzalo Himiob Santomé, director of the NGO, said on Friday.

The official statement says that the released political prisoner will be sent to Spain at the request of his mother Yamile Saleh. However, the news took the woman by surprise, who was on the outskirts of El Helicoide Sebin prison. I did not know anything about this, I thought they were going to give it to me here, but it's free and that's the most important thing.”

The activist was deprived of freedom since the wave of protests in early 2014 and his presentation hearing was deferred 53 times.

Alban case and the pressure on the press

The Union of Workers of the Press of Venezuela (Sntp) denounced on Wednesday October 10 that journalists have received threats for reporting on the death of Councilman Fernando Alban, who died after falling from a tenth floor, according to the official version, while he was under State custody at the Sebin headquarters in Caracas.

The publications in printed newspapers and digital platforms of the country have concentrated on evidencing, for example, the contradictions between the public prosecutor of the Republic, Tarek William Saab, and the Minister of the Interior, Néstor Reverol, who, without an investigation of by means, they affirmed that the suicide had occurred from different places of the Sebin building.

The opposition and the international community question the official version, calling for an impartial investigation.

A group composed of specialists from Brazil, the United States and Mexico was authorized by the Organization of American States (OAS) to create a fund to provide food, medical care and legal assistance in Venezuela.

 For its part, the Mercosur Parliament called for an exhaustive investigation into the councilor's death.

Deputy Williams Dávila announced that he will urgently address violations of human rights in Venezuela in the Parlasur.

You are responsible for action or inaction, omission or consent, and from this moment on, you will be persecuted by justice for the rest of your life, Dávila said from Caracas last Wednesday. </s> A prominent Venezuelan journalist who had been reporting on the country’s escalating political crisis and electricity blackout out has been seized by secret police, sparking international condemnation.

Luis Carlos Díaz went missing at about 5.30pm on Monday after leaving the radio station where he worked in the capital, Caracas.

Early on Tuesday, fellow journalists confirmed Díaz had been taken by members of Venezuela’s feared intelligence service, Sebin.

Venezuela’s National Press Workers Union said agents raided Díaz’s home shortly before dawn, seizing computers and pen drives as the handcuffed journalist looked on.

Díaz is reportedly now being held in the notorious El Helicoide political prison.

Luz Mely Reyes, an internationally acclaimed Venezuelan journalist, told the Guardian her colleague’s detention was part of an escalating war on the press being waged by the country’s embattled leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Maduro is fighting for his political life after an audacious challenge from a young opposition leader called Juan Guaidó, who most western governments now recognize as Venezuela’s rightful interim president.

“I think one of the things [Maduro] is trying to achieve is to intimidate [journalists] and ensure the stories about what is going on in Venezuela are not told,” Reyes said.

“Repression against the press has been growing.”

Last week, one day before much of Venezuela was paralyzed by a massive power cut, an American freelance journalist who had worked for the Daily Telegraph was deported after being seized at his home in Caracas. 



A rightwing German journalist, Billy Six, has reportedly been held in El Helicoide since being detained on suspicion of espionage last year.

“It is just a joke,” his father, Edward Six, told the Guardian in a recent interview. “Journalism is not a crime.”

Díaz’s detention – which authorities have yet to explain – triggered condemnation in and outside of Venezuela, with Guaidó denouncing Maduro’s “persecution” of journalists.

During a brief conversation in the early hours of Tuesday, Díaz reportedly told Naky Soto, his journalist wife, he had been detained near the Korean embassy in Caracas while riding his bicycle home. Agents said he was suspected of “IT offenses”.

Last Friday, Maduro’s second-in-command, Diosdado Cabello, published a conspiratorial video on Twitter insinuating Díaz was part of a “rancid” rightwing US-backed plot to destroy Venezuela’s electricity network.

Reyes said she feared Díaz’s detention would not be the last, as the political situation in Venezuela deteriorated. “This is not a game – this is a very serious situation that puts us on alert.” </s> Two French television reporters arrested in Venezuela on Wednesday have been freed, according to the country's ministry for foreign affairs.

The Venezuelan government also released the three journalists working for the Spanish news agency EFE, said the agency itself. All of them will be deported to Colombia.

The journalists were arrested in Caracas on Wednesday by members of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin).

It is still unknown whether the driver, who has Venezuelan nationality, was also freed.

The French reporters — named as Pierre Caillé and Baptiste des Monstiers — work for the "Quotidien" programme broadcast on the TV channel TMC. They were detained on Tuesday evening as they filmed the presidential palace in Caracas.

Their producer in the country, Rolando Rodriquez, was also held, the main Venezuelan journalists' union the SNTP added.

The Spanish branch of Reporters without borders confirmed the news on Twitter and said it was "following the situation very closely."

The French foreign affairs ministry on Thursday, said Paris "demands the release" of the two French journalists arrested in Venezuela.

It previously asked for the right to "consular protection" according to the Vienna convention and the right to visit. "Quotidien" tweeted that to say more risked aggravating the journalists' plight.

The Spanish said in a statement on Thursday that it "wholeheartedly" rejected the arrests of the Spanish journalists in Caracas. "Through the Embassy in Caracas, all necessary steps are being taken to secure their release as soon as possible," it added.

Two Colombian journalists, Mauren Barriga and Leonardo Muñoz and a Spanish journalist Gonzalo Domínguez were the ones detained.

The three journalists are part of a team that travelled from Bogotá, Colombia to cover the crisis in Venezuela.

The lack of accreditation by the Venezuelan government was Sebin's argument for arresting the journalists.

EFE's Editorial Board demanded the immediate release of its "three comrades" in a tweet, adding: "There is no democracy without freedom of information."

The SNTP also said that two television journalists from Chile, arrested on Tuesday night, had been expelled from the country. The Chilean foreign minister Roberto Ampuero accused Venezuela of trampling on press freedom.

Venezuela's foreign minister Jorge Areaza has blamed foreign journalists for entering the country without having secured work permits. The organisation Reporters Without Borders has denounced "violence by security forces against journalists" from Venezuela and abroad.

It comes as the US envoy to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams has cautioned socialist President Nicolas Maduro for acting against the self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaidó.

Abrams said the US will keep the pressure on Maduro to step down by applying further sanctions and search globally for assets.

"The security of interim president Guaidó is a concern," Abrams told a group of reporters. </s> The Spanish government on Thursday demanded the immediate release of journalists working for the Spanish news agency EFE who were arrested in Venezuela. Madrid “strongly condemns” the detention in Caracas of four members of a team from Spanish news agency EFE by Venezuela’s state intelligence agency Sebin, the Foreign Ministry said. Spain demands that “the competent authorities release them immediately,” it said, adding that Madrid “again asks the Venezuelan authorities to respect the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms.” The three EFE journalists – a Spanish reporter, a Colombian videographer and a Colombian photographer – were arrested along with their Venezuelan driver on Wednesday, Reuters reports. Two French journalists from the TV channel TMC were detained on Tuesday as they filmed the presidential palace in Caracas and have not been heard from since, Venezuela’s main journalists’ union, the SNTP, said. Two Chilean journalists who were also arrested on Tuesday near the presidential palace “were kicked out of Venezuela” on Wednesday, it added. </s> Madrid on Thursday demanded the immediate release of journalists working for the Spanish news agency EFE who were arrested in Venezuela as part of a crackdown by Caracas on foreign media.

The Spanish government "strongly condemns" the detention in Caracas of four members of a team from Spanish news agency EFE by Venezuela's state intelligence agency Sebin, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"The government demands that the competent authorities release them immediately. The government again asks the Venezuelan authorities to respect the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, of which freedom of the press is a central element," it added.

The three EFE journalists -- a Spanish reporter, a Colombian videographer and a Colombian photographer -- were arrested along with their Venezuelan driver on Wednesday, according to the Spanish news agency.

Two French journalists from the TV channel TMC were detained on Tuesday as they filmed the presidential palace in Caracas and have not been heard from since, according to Venezuela's main journalists' union, the SNTP.

Two Chilean journalists who were also arrested on Tuesday near the presidential palace were kicked out of Venezuela on Wednesday, the union added.

The arrests come shortly after Venezuela's opposition, which is challenging President Nicolas Maduro's legitimacy as the country's leader, appealed for fresh street protests to demand a transition government and new elections.

"They can not prevent the world from knowing what is happening in Venezuela," opposition leader Juan Guaido, who declared himself interim president last week, wrote on Twitter. </s> The Latest: US journalist reported freed in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The latest on the detention of a U.S. journalist by Venezuela security forces (all times local):

Executives at a Miami TV station say their correspondent based in Venezuela has been freed from custody hours after security forces seized him at his apartment.

ABC affiliate Local 10 News reported Wednesday that freelance journalist Cody Weddle was at the airport outside Caracas waiting for a flight to the United States.

Weddle's detention came the same day that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered the expulsion of Germany's ambassador after the envoy expressed support for Guaido.

Virginia-born Weddle has worked as a journalist in Venezuela for more than four years. It's unclear why officials detained him.

Senior Venezuelan officials would not comment on the case.

Lawyers and press freedom groups say Venezuelan security forces have seized a U.S. journalist at his apartment amid the country's escalating political turmoil.

Neighbors say a squad of five men dressed in black uniforms and carrying a written order demanded entry into the Caracas apartment building of journalist Cody Weddle on Wednesday morning. They say the officers emerged two hours later with the Virginia-born Weddle carrying a large suitcase and equipment bag.

The U.S. State Department says it is aware of a missing journalist and warns President Nicolas Maduro's government that the world is watching.
Prominent Venezuelan journalist Luis Carlos Díaz [es] is released after being taken by SEBIN, the national intelligence service, on Monday; he has been ordered not to speak of his time in detention or publish anything.