Venezuelan and International Organizations, Intellectuals Demand Release of Activist Martha Lía Grajales

Caracas, August 11, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan social movements and activists mobilized to demand the release of human rights lawyer Martha Lía Grajales, a member of human rights collective Surgentes who was detained Friday.

The 45-year-old activist was detained shortly after participating in a demonstration. Witnesses reported that Grajales was taken in a grey vehicle with no plates after being stopped at a police checkpoint.

On Monday afternoon, the Attorney General’s Office announced that Grajales was charged with incitement of hatred, conspiracy with a foreign government and criminal association. It did not provide further details on the charges.

Earlier on Monday, around 100 people gathered at the Kaikaishi community center in La Vega, southwest Caracas, to express support for Grajales and demand her release.

Colombian-born Grajales has a longstanding trajectory of human rights and social activism. Having taken part in police reform initiatives under the Hugo Chávez government, including the Experimental Security University (UNES), she was later active with a number of grassroots movements.

Georgina Castillo, a member of the La Vega Committee for the Defense of People’s Rights, lauded Grajales’ “tireless work” in defense of Venezuelan working-class communities.

“Martha never left us alone. She’s a great Chavista and revolutionary comrade,” Castillo told Venezuelanalysis. “We need to know her whereabouts, we need to have her released.”

Grajales helped found the La Vega organization to defend five young men from the neighborhood who were arrested in 2021 during a large-scale police operation. The committee mobilized to defend their innocence, exposing irregularities and delays in the judicial process. Four of the five men were freed in 2023, while the fifth passed away after suffering health complications in prison. The precedent established by the release of the young men from La Vega later secured the freedom of another 15 men from the neighborhood.

Likewise present at the demonstration calling for Grajales’ release were members of the Unidos San Agustín Convive Cooperative. Grajales and Surgentes founded and actively supported the community organization in initiatives centered on food security and reducing violence in the Afro-Venezuelan barrio.

“Martha was always alongside our community, even during the toughest times,” cooperative member Lixcelo Tejada told Venezuelanalysis. “We want to have her alive and well at our side once more.”

Antonio González Plessmann, fellow member of Surgentes and Grajales’ husband, posted on social media that he had visited multiple detention facilities in Caracas since Friday but had not been able to locate her.

Several other Venezuelan grassroots initiatives voiced their backing for Grajales and the defense of her rights on Monday or via social media, including Plan Pueblo a Pueblo, Araña Feminista and Frente Cultural de Izquierda.

An online petition expressing concern over the circumstances surrounding Grajales’ detention, calling for her liberation and respect for due process gathered more than 800 signatures in under 48 hours. Signees included Argentinian writer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentinian writer Miguel Mazzeo, French-Brazilian sociologist Michael Lowy and Venezuelan feminist intellectual Alba Carosio.

The Venezuela chapter of Pacto Histórico, the coalition supporting Colombian President Gustavo Petro, likewise voiced its backing for Grajales, who helped set up the chapter and mobilize the Colombian diaspora in support of Petro.

Demonstration for detainees’ rights

Grajales’ arrest followed a demonstration organized by the self-described Committee of Mothers in Defense of the Truth in front of the United Nations headquarters on Friday afternoon.

The committee was created to defend the legal rights of young men arrested for alleged participation in the violent actions orchestrated by far-right sectors that followed the July 28, 2024, presidential election. The detainees’ relatives and lawyers have argued their innocence while also denouncing alleged due-process delays and violations.

Friday’s rally followed a Tuesday vigil before the Venezuelan Supreme Court (TSJ) in Caracas in which the committee denounced an attack they allege was carried out by “para-police” groups who repressed the approximately 50 mothers and activists who had gathered. 

Venezuela’s Ombudsman’s Office condemned the “acts of violence” and urged the victims to file a formal complaint with the Attorney General’s Office to begin an investigation and determine responsibility for the assault, while reaffirming calls for respect for human rights. 

Attorney General Tarek William Saab stated that he requested that the Supreme Court sign off on the release of 2000 prisoners so they can face trial outside detention but that only 1767 cases have been processed. The mothers’ committee had expressed its desire to meet with TSJ officials and expedite the remaining cases.

Edited by José Luis Granados Ceja in Mexico City, Mexico.

[UPDATE: on Monday night, media sources and relatives confirmed that Martha Lía Grajales had been released. She will face trial but not in detention. According to Surgentes, the charges are solely based on a cybersurveillance report of its website.]