The Interior Ministry has granted the right of asylum to Luis Armando Pérez, brother of the rebel policeman who confronted Nicolás Maduro for six months. In this way, the Spanish government rectifies the previous denial of his refugee status and prevents his return to Venezuela, “which would be my death,” as he explained to the local news agency at the end of last year.
“They called me from the Ministry, from the Undersecretary of the Interior, to apologize several times and to inform me that they would send me the resolution immediately. It just arrived,” Oscar Pérez’s brother confirmed to this newspaper on Tuesday. This famous helicopter pilot, today a symbol of the resistance against the Bolivarian regime, was executed extra-summarily at the beginning of 2018, after the seizure of the house where he was hiding outside the capital.
Both Perez and his six companions, including a nurse, did not fire a single shot and surrendered to the revolutionary agents, almost a thousand soldiers, police officers from the FAES (Special Police Forces, defined by the United Nations as the “battalions of extermination “of Chavismo) and paramilitary groups. Their surrender did not save their lives: they were besieged, machine-gunned, bombarded, and executed. All of them presented shots of grace in the face and in the neck, as demonstrated by the autopsies and the images published exclusively by the local news agency.
The resolution held by Perez’s older brother also includes the right to asylum for his children and his wife by family extension. “I am pleased to know that the independence of powers exists in this beautiful country, an issue that we lost many years ago,” said Luis Armando, who thanked the Undersecretary of the Interior for the positive resolution of his administrative appeal. The Venezuelan refugee had the legal collaboration of the Red Cross.
The prior denial of asylum to Luis Armando Perez, 42, was received with surprise and rejection by public opinion, given the relevance of the events that accompanied the execution of Oscar Perez’s group. The government of Castilla y León even demanded rectification through a letter sent to the Ministry.In the first letter, the Spanish authorities ruled out that the Venezuelan citizen “would suffer the death penalty or the risk of material execution, nor is a risk of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment identified.” On the other hand, accusations of terrorism to a degree of complicity still weigh in Venezuela against the eldest Perez, according to the order published by the judge of the Special Court of First Instance, a specialist in terrorism crimes.
Maduro’s dungeons today lock up 354 political prisoners in the Creole country in a country in which, according to the United Nations, crimes against humanity have been detailed, including extrajudicial executions, torture, rape, arbitrary detentions, and forced disappearances.During the six weeks since the first resolution, Luis Armando Perez has received different proposals for humanitarian assistance, including from Australia. “I am happy for all the solidarity received. Now I will have the card (identity card) and I will be able to get a job,” he said after receiving the notification at his home.
