FILE PHOTO: Juan Requesens, deputy of the Venezuelan coalition of opposition parties (MUD), speaks during a session of the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela April 5, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo
August 8, 2018
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition said that lawmaker Juan Requesens and his sister Rafaela Requesens, a student leader, were arrested in their Caracas apartment on Tuesday night, after President Nicolas Maduro’s vowed to crack down on adversaries following drone explosions at a weekend rally.
“Fourteen men of the SEBIN forcefully kidnapped lawmaker Juan Requesens and the president of the Federation of University Centers, Rafaela Requesens,” the Justice First party, to which Juan Requesens belongs, tweeted.
“All we know is that the SEBIN came to get him in his apartment in Caracas,” a source close to Juan Requesens said, requesting anonymity. Juan Requesens, 29, represents the Andean state of Tachira.
The Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Soldiers in T-shirts, a group that has said it was formed to unite the ‘Resistance’ to Maduro, claimed responsibility for the drone attack on Saturday night.
The ‘Resistance’ is usually used to describe demonstrators who were at the forefront of street protests that rocked Venezuela in 2017. The Requesens siblings were among young politicians who helped lead the protests. In a televised speech on Tuesday, Maduro showed a video of a young man detained over the drone incident saying that Requesens had been involved.
“Another leader of the opposition is mentioned, one of the craziest ones, a psychopath, his last name is Requesens,” Maduro said. He did not say if Requesens had been detained.
(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer)
