A group of at least 15 Venezuelan teenagers was slapped with dubious “treason to the homeland” charges for allegedly celebrating the downfall of deposed socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, the outlet Runrunes reported on Monday.
The Venezuelan news site Runrunes detailed that the teenagers were arrested while they were playing in the city of Barcelona, Anzoátegui, on the evening of January 5 by officials from both the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) and local state police.
According to the outlet, the officials were deployed in response to a purported “anonymous” caller who reported that alleged “terrorist acts” were taking place in the area the teenagers were in at the time. Eight unidentified adults were also reportedly detained by the police officers, who were sent along with the teenagers to a local Preventive Detention Center in Barcelona.
Within 48 hours of their arrest, Runrunes detailed, the teenagers were all transferred to a Barcelona Court, where, according to witnesses, they attended a remote hearing in which they were arrested along with the eight adults. Relatives of the teenagers told Runrunes said that the young people were not allowed private defense and were charged with alleged crimes of “incitement to hatred, treason, and criminal association.”
Runrunes pointed out that exiled Venezuelan lawyer and former prosecutor Zair Mundaray provided further details of the case on social media. Although Runrunes reported that 15 teenagers were arrested, Mundaray published a list on Monday afternoon containing the names and ages of 16 teenagers aged 14 to 17 arrested on January 5. Unnamed sources denounced to Mundaray that evidence such as stones and bottles that they did not have was planted on the teenagers.
“On Monday 5, a group of children from the El Espejo and La Aduana neighborhoods were playing carnival in the ‘La Burra’ sector when they were intercepted by the Municipal Police, whose director is José Gregorio Cano, who detained them without justification and accused them of celebrating the arrest of dictator Maduro,” Mundaray’s message read.
“Prosecutor Jesmit Milano brought them before the judge of Criminal Responsibility for Children and Adolescents, following instructions from the prosecutor of torture [Venezuelan A.G.] Tarek William Saab and charged them with criminal association, incitement to hatred, and treason,” he continued.
Mundaray further detailed that a judge identified as Indira Ortiz ordered their detention and left them at the Las Casitas de Barcelona Detention Center, where “there are not even the minimum hygiene conditions for the detention of children and where there is an unknown number of adults deprived of their liberty.”
“The El Espejo neighborhood is tense, facing helplessness and fear of further repression. Police, National Guard, and colectivos threaten to prevent protests,” the lawyer stressed.
Runrunes reported that relatives and friends of the arrested teenagers said that they were asked to collect signatures in the town to “demonstrate everyone’s good conduct” and were told that, once the signatures had been submitted, they would supposedly be released.
The Venezuelan outlet pointed out that although Venezuela is a signatory of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, the South American nation entered a phase of unprecedented repression since the aftermath of the July 28, 2024, sham presidential election “from which children and adolescents were not spared.” The treaty, which Venezuela is obligated to uphold, “expressly prohibits the unlawful or arbitrary deprivation of liberty of this group and establishes that the arrest, detention, or imprisonment of a child shall be carried out in accordance with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.”
The Venezuelan socialist regime is presently undertaking a new intimidation campaign against those who support the United States’ January 3 law enforcement action that resulted in the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. The campaign has seen the arrest of several individuals across the country for having celebrated Maduro’s capture.
José Antonio Colina, president of the non-government organization Venezuelans Persecuted Politically in Exile (VEPPEX) explained to Breitbart News last week that sources inside Venezuela denounced to him that members of the colectivos, armed socialist thugs at the service of the Venezuelan regime, are actively conducting door-to-door visits in homes and searching through the contents of individuals’ smartphones and other devices, arresting anyone if they find any content considered supportive of the United States or Maduro’s arrest.
Colina stressed to Breitbart News that, “in this case, the repressive apparatus of persecution is carried out by groups under the control of Diosdado Cabello,” Venezuela’s interior minister, a long-suspected drug lord, and the socialist strongman in charge of the regime’s brutally repressive apparatus.
Jorge Rodríguez, the current head of the socialist-controlled National Assembly and brother to current “acting President” Delcy Rodríguez, announced last week that an “important number” of Venezuelan and foreign nationals kept as political prisoners would be released and granted freedom as part of a “unilateral gesture” amid ongoing conversations with the administration of President Donald Trump.
The Venezuelan non-government organization Foro Penal documented that the Venezuelan regime held 863 confirmed political prisoners as of the end of 2025. Despite the Venezuelan socialists’ promises to the United States, only a fraction of the political prisoners have been released over the past days.
Foro Penal’s president Alfredo Romero noted on social media that, as of Tuesday, January 13, at 10:00 a.m. (local time), only 56 political prisoners have been confirmed by Foro Penal to have been released — refuting statements recently issued by the Venezuelan regime claiming that “116” political prisoners have been released. The Venezuelan regime does not refer to them as political prisoners, but simply as “detainees.”
“The government says there are 116, but has not published a list of names. Family members and prisoners remain in uncertainty and painful anticipation,” Romero’s message read.
Several relatives of the political prisoners have remained in vigil outside the Venezuelan prisons where their family members are still unjustly detained over the past days since Jorge Rodríguez’s January 8 announcement. The Argentine outlet Infobae detailed that many of the relatives sleep in cars or outdoors, with no police presence in a dangerous area.
One such camp was installed outside the Rodeo I Prison in the municipality of Zamora, Miranda, where dozens of relatives have remained in waiting. Infobae reported that a nearby storeowner is allowing the relatives of political prisoners to use her establishment’s electricity, and local residents are sharing food, beverages, and coffee with the people waiting in vigil.
“There is impatience and discontent, but also hope,” Aurora Silva, wife of former opposition lawmaker and political prisoner Freddy Superlano reportedly told the Spanish news agency EFE. “We hope that in the coming hours, in the coming days, all political prisoners will be released, because very few have been released so far.”
Silva explained that on Sunday she was finally allowed to see her husband inside the Rodeo I prison after 18 months, but only through a glass. She nevertheless said she was happy because “I could see that he was alive.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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