Venezuela Admits Man Died in Custody in 2025 Despite Telling his Mother He Was Alive for Almost a Year

Venezuela's prisons ministry has admitted that a man whose 82-year-old mother spent months searching for him until this week had already died in state custody in July 2025.

In a statement released on May 7, the ministry said Víctor Hugo Quero Navas had died of medical complications.

It also claimed it had no record of family contacts or applications for family visits, despite his mother, Carmen Navas, going to Rodeo I prison, as well as other detention centres, where she was repeatedly told he was not there.

Quero was detained in Caracas on January 3, 2025 by officials from Venezuela's military counterintelligence agency, the DGCIM. The 51-year-old was accused of terrorism and conspiracy, although relatives and eyewitnesses maintain he was travelling to spend the New Year with his mother.

There have been waves of detentions and forced temporary disappearances of anti-government protesters, journalists, activists and military personnel in recent years, including after the contested 2024 election. At one point, over 2,000 political prisoners were being held.

On October 24, 2025, Venezuela's Ombudsman Office did eventually inform Navas that her son was being held at Rodeo I prison. But by that time, he had already been dead for three months.

The organization, CLIPPVE, which represents families of political prisoners and has been supporting Navas, described the case as "outrageous."

"That woman never stopped, from the moment he was taken away, asking where they had him, whether he was alive and how he was doing," Diego Casanova, a representative of CLIPPVE, told Latin Times. His brother was also previously a political prisoner,

"It is horrifying how the state refuses to publicly acknowledge responsibility for what happened, and instead tries to cover it up."

Rights groups say it is common practice for state officials to withhold or deny information about political prisoners.

"At Rodeo I there is a lot of opacity, they mistreat people, they never respond, they always say the detainees are not there and deny information. The officers also wear balaclavas, hoods and cover their faces."

At one point, after repeated visits to Rodeo I prison, a prison official reportedly asked Navas: "Why do you insist on coming?" They repeatedly denied he was there, despite her being told he was and former detainees had previously reported seeing him in poor health in prison.

Navas also reported receiving threats and harassment from colectivos, armed pro-government groups stationed near her home.

In the statement posted on social media on May 7, authorities said he died in a military hospital on July 30, 2025 due to "acute respiratory failure secondary to pulmonary thromboembolism." He was allegedly buried six days later.

His body was exhumed on May 8 at the request of his mother for DNA testing and to determine the cause of death.

With Quero's death, rights groups say at least 27 political prisoners have died in state custody since 2014.

In a statement, the Venezuelan rights organization Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón (JEP) said the deaths were not isolated incidents and were "concealed behind bureaucratic neglect and institutional opacity."

Rosa Orozco, director of Justicia, Encuentro y Perdon, says the pain of Navas is one shared by many mothers in Venezuela who have lost children at the hands of the state. Her daughter, Geraldin Orozco, was killed by government forces in 2014 during anti-government protests.

"That pain is, honestly, indescribable. It's as if your soul were being torn apart," Orozco told Latin Times.

"I imagine Carmen going around all the prisons and detention centres – like a pilgrimage of suffering. That lack of truth, that lack of justice, is the worst thing a mother can face," she said.

According to JEP, deaths of political prisoners in custody are typically the result of a combination of a triad of abuses, including torture or ill-treatment, the denial of medical care amounting to a slow death in custody, and the systematic failure to grant humanitarian measures such as alternatives to detention even when a prisoner's health is seriously deteriorating.

JEP and other organisations are calling for an independent investigation, including forensic examinations and an autopsy conducted by outside specialists, arguing that authorities implicated in the case cannot credibly investigate themselves.

They say the case of Navas and her son Victor sits within a wider pattern of detention and denial, according to NGOs, which escalated again following the 2024 election. Nicolás Maduro claimed to have won the vote, despite opposition evidence showing he had lost.

A sweeping crackdown on dissent ensued, with detainees charged with offences including terrorism and treason.

Following the capture of Maduro by U.S. special forces in January 2026, hundreds of political prisoners were released, including those who had been imprisoned for years.

Ramon Centeno was one of those. The journalist was let out of prison days after Maduro's capture – four years after being arrested.

Centeno entered prison on crutches following a road traffic accident and left in a wheelchair after being denied adequate medical attention. He has since undergone operations following his release and is now walking again.

"I identify with Víctor Hugo Quero in many ways: in terms of poor health, lack of medical care,and the violation of human rights. He was denied a defense, he was hidden — he was forcibly disappeared. I disappeared too for a while. But unfortunately he remained disappeared."

Two weeks later after his release, Centeno's own mother, who had spent years campaigning for his freedom, died of a stroke. He says mothers and families of political prisoners are victims too.

"Carmen visited so many institutions, like my own mother. Both of them fought to see us free, they fought to find us, to get us out of the grip of the system that are Venezuelan prisons, and in none of them were they listened to," Centeno, who personally knew Navas, said.

According to rights group Foro Penal, at least 457 political prisoners are still in jail.

By Catherine Ellis, Latin America Reports

Catherine's Bio:

Catherine Ellis is a contributing reporter to Latin America Reports and a freelance journalist who has worked extensively in Colombia and Venezuela. Her work has been published by Al Jazeera, the BBC, Mongabay, The Spectator and more.