Adelaida Herrera, 56, holds a picture of her son Bleider Leves Herrera, 17, who was detained while returning from visiting his girlfriend as protesters were contesting election results, in Caracas, Venezuela, September 16, 2024. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria
CARACAS (Reuters) - Bleider Leves, a 17-year-old mechanic, was heading to his Caracas home one day in late July after Venezuela's contested election when police grabbed him on the street. Officers beat, tortured and jailed him without cause, his mother said.
Nearly two months later, the teenager remains imprisoned but there have been no charges nor any sign he will be released, his mother, Adelaida Herrera, said in an interview. Rights groups alleged there have been 25 deaths and 2,400 arrests in the government's crackdown after the disputed election.
"I've asked the authorities to please give him back to me," said Herrera, wiping away tears.
The communications ministry and attorney general's office did not respond to requests for comment on Bleider's case and the number of those detained following the election.
Electoral officials and the top court declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the July 28 election with 52% of the vote. But the opposition says voting machine receipts show a landslide victory for their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez.
Some Western governments, including the United States, have alleged electoral fraud.
Two days after the election, Bleider was returning home after spending time with his girlfriend when police seized him, even though he did not join any anti-government protests, Herrera said.
Police beat him, kicked him in the chest and took him to a police station, the mother said, relaying the account Bleider gave her when she has visited him on several occasions.
Hours later, agents pressured him to confess falsely that the country's opposition leader paid him to protest, Herrera said Bleider told her. They put a plastic bag over his head in a tactic locally known as "the little onion," she said.
"They tortured him... to tell them Maria Corina was paying him $50 to protest," said Herrera, referring to opposition leader and former lawmaker Maria Corina Machado.
Bleider has been transferred several times, Herrera said. She last visited him on Sept. 16 at Cementerio police station in southwest Caracas.
Herrera, who was alternately calm and distraught in the interview at her simple Caracas home, said she brought him rice, vegetables, arepa corn cakes and some cookies.
A United Nations report last week alleged escalating government repression since the election, including the arrest of minors. The government has rejected the claims.
Herrera spends hours every day gazing out the window of her son's empty bedroom. "I want them to give me an answer about my son and what's going to happen because, honestly, I don't want to keep living like this," she said.
(Reporting by Carlos Ramiriez; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Deisy Buitrago and Cynthia Osterman)
