From today’s UN Watch press conference held at the UN office in Geneva:
Eusebio Costa, student leader, President of Renovatio,
member of the protest camp in Las Mercedes
- “I was threatened by Bolivarian secret service, had to flee.”
- “As we say in Venezuela, Maduro comes here to wash his face in front of the Council.”
- Maduro “is playing a joke on the Venezuelan people” coming to the UNHRC when the situation in Venezuela is so parlous. “There is no freedom of expression.”
Julieta López, aunt of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo López
- “This is not the first time I bring this message to you on behalf of Leopoldo and his family who suffer from very tough conditions.”
- “What I say is already known. But we cannot stop repeating what the world doesn’t want to hear”
- “Leopoldo is isolated in a tower in a very small cell – 2 by 2”
- “He has to climb up his cell walls like spiderman to be able to see the daylight, to be able to breathe. He climbs up to search for the light because he’s not even allowed to have light.”
- “He’s allowed 30 minutes a day to go outside. He has no communication with anybody. Only his direct family (wife and parents) can visit him. When they come, they are also harassed.”
- “The guard who gives him food cannot even speak to him.”
- “Venezuela is a dictatorship – with a facade of democracy.”
