Monday, May 18th 2026 - 02:57 UTC
Carmen Navas had become a symbolic figure in the search for Venezuelan political prisoners subjected to enforced disappearance. Photo: Miguel Gutiérrez / EFE
Carmen Teresa Navas, 83, the mother of Venezuelan political prisoner Víctor Hugo Quero, died on Sunday in Caracas, days after she had identified the exhumed body of her son, who had been buried in secret nine months earlier. The octogenarian, who had been hospitalized in recent days, was seen this same week alongside her relatives at the large memorial mass for her son. Physicians have not officially reported the clinical causes of her death. Her passing closes one of the most disturbing episodes in the country's recent human rights record.
Carmen Navas had become a symbolic figure in the search for Venezuelan political prisoners subjected to enforced disappearance. For 16 months she traveled through prisons, courts, and public offices demanding information on the whereabouts of her son, detained on 3 January 2025 near the central Plaza Venezuela in Caracas and charged with terrorism, treason, and conspiracy. Quero, a 51-year-old merchant, remained missing for months despite his mother's repeated approaches to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Ombudsman's Office, and the El Rodeo prison, a maximum-security facility known for the harsh conditions in which it holds detainees on political grounds.
