Well, those are the four crimes.
My brother wasn't hidden, but he decided not to go into exile. That was what the government wanted him to do. Instead, he handed himself in. What he did was face a justice system that we all knew was not going to give him a fair trial. But he said he had no rights and that he was not going to leave his country. He stayed. On February 18, he handed himself in, and this unjust trial began.
There have been many violations against him, including lack of due process, including that he's in a military prison, including that he's in solitary confinement. He cannot get visitors. Only his family can visit him. That means his parents, his wife, his two young children, ages five and two, and his sisters. When he receives his attorney, he cannot have private meetings; there's always somebody in the room, so he is not getting the right to confidentiality. He has also not been able to receive private correspondence. Leopoldo also does not have the freedom de culto, to worship. He is a person of faith. He wants to attend mass and he wants to receive a priest. He has been denied that right.
The list of human rights that have been violated is very long. It is very sad for us to go into that prison and see the treatment that he and other political prisoners are receiving. I want to say things that are very sad for me to say, and to say in this country. I don't think any citizen wants to say terrible things that happen in their country, but I don't have a space in my country to say this; that's why I'm here in Canada, to tell you about this.
In the prison he is in, one night at 3:00 in the morning eight men dressed all in black, with ski masks and no identification, came inside his cell and threw all the books to the ground, took all the notes he had been preparing for the trial, and threw him around. As you can understand, that is a form of torture that happened to my brother. It was very terrible for me and my family to see what had happened.
Another time, the director of the jail, Homero Miranda, had some soldiers go onto the roof and throw feces through the windows of Leopoldo's cell, and the cells of Daniel Ceballos—another political prisoner—of Enzo Scarano, and of Salvatore Lucchese. After throwing all that into their cells, they cut off the lights and the water system so that they could not clean what had been thrown. That's another form of torture.
As you see, my brother is a victim of several tortures. I'm very sad to say that it's not just my brother. I want to talk about other prisoners.
There are more than 63 political prisoners right now in Venezuela. I don't know whether you knew about it. I think in our continent, in the Americas, there have been many advances against these violations. I think that only in Venezuela are there so many political prisoners.
I want to talk about some of these cases. One that is very sad is that of Marcelo Crovato. He's an attorney. He's part of the ONG Foro Penal. He's in prison because he was defending students who had gone out to protest. Now he has been several months in jail. He's in a very bad health situation. He's the father of two children. He tried to commit suicide in December. The government has not given him and his family any response.
Another case is that of Christian Holdack. Christian Holdack is a young photographer and student who, on February 12, was taking photographs of the demonstration, and because he was taking photographs, he has now been one year in prison. They have tried to link him to Leopoldo and say that he was associated in his case. Christian Holdack had never met Leopoldo. Christian Holdack is not part of any political party. He is an individual who was a student taking photographs in a demonstration.
The list is very long. I can talk about Rosmit Mantilla, a gay rights advocate who is also in prison. His trial was suspended 11 times. I can talk about Daniel Ceballos, a young political leader who has dreams of a better country, and for that reason he is also in military prison, in Ramo Verde. He was an elected mayor. He was elected in December 2013 and by April 2014 he was in jail.
It's a long list of people who are in prison and whose rights have been violated.
I think I have given you a sense of what we are going through right now in our country.
Thank you very much.