Public Outcry Marks 2 Years Since Disappearance of Chavista Activist

Venezuelan activists have taken to social media this week to demand justice in the case of Chavista political leader Alcedo Mora on the second anniversary of his disappearance.

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Caracas, February 28, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan activists have taken to social media this week to demand justice in the case of Chavista political leader Alcedo Mora on the second anniversary of his disappearance.

A member of the Chavista political movement Party of the Venezuelan Revolution Rupture, Mora was reportedly investigating an alleged corruption scandal in the Merida state government involving the contraband of PDVSA gasoline to Colombia under the auspices of company officials and local functionaries. 

Mora, himself a state government employee, was last seen in the vicinity of the El Llano Plaza in Merida on February 26, 2015. The revolutionary militant alluded to the possible role of the National Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) in his disappearance, allegedly warning his fellow activists in a text message the day prior.

 “Comrades. Alert. The SEBIN has a capture order for me… they want to get back at me for denunciations of corruption I’ve been making against PDVSA and they want to frame me,” he wrote.

Likewise, close friends and family members have indicated that in the days leading up to his arrest, Mora was being followed and subject to harassment.

“Days before, close to his house, a black Hilux pickup drove by, and yelled at him, ‘watch out buddy, if you keep talking smack, we’ll break you,’” reported Dario Gomez, a close friend of Mora, who has been investigating the disappearance. 

In addition to Mora, two Colombian refugees, Esneider and Eliezer Vergel, have also been missing since February 27, 2015. Both brothers were involved in community organizing with Mora.

Neither the SEBIN nor the public prosecutor charged with investigating the case have yet provided concrete answers to the victims’ families.

In recent days, Chavista activists have taken to social media and the alternative Chavista website Aporrea to demand truth and justice in the case of Mora and the other disappeared. 

A public letter titled “Where is Alcedo Mora” is currently circulating on Aporrea and social media, while the hashtag #DóndeEstáAlcedo (#WhereIsAlcedo) is trending on Twitter.

“Where is Alcedo Mora? The experience around the world in the face of these types of disappearances is that one cannot stop asking, because silence is criminal complicity,” reads the statement, which readers are welcomed to sign and recirculate.

The Venezuelan government has yet to issue a public statement on the ongoing status of the case.