VENEZUELA: RENZO HUAMANCHUMO RELEASED AFTER ARBITRARY DETENTION IN VENEZUELA

The International League Against Arbitrary Detention (ILAAD) welcomes the release of Mr. Renzo Yasir Huamanchumo Castillo, a Peruvian national who had been arbitrarily detained in Venezuela since September 2024. He was arrested at a border crossing between Colombia and Venezuela by the Bolivarian National Guard, held incommunicado without access to a lawyer or his family, and later publicly accused of plotting against President Maduro without evidence.

• In response, ILAAD submitted a complaint to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), calling for Mr. Huamanchumo’s immediate release, reparations, and an independent investigation into the arbitrary and discriminatory nature of his detention.

• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru closely followed the case, engaging in sustained diplomatic efforts through the Embassy of Brazil in Caracas, the U.S. State Department, the UN, and the OAS.

On 18 July 2025, Mr. Huamanchumo was released as part of a detainee exchange between Venezuela and El Salvador. He is currently in El Salvador in good health.

While celebrating this long-awaited release, ILAAD stresses that arbitrary detention must never be used as a political tool.

In its 2020 Annual report (A/HRC/48/55) and in the light of the adoption of the Declaration against Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations, on 15 February 2021, in Ottawa, the Working Group recalled its grave concern about the detention of foreign nationals especially in instances where foreign nationals are detained in a country in order to gain leverage in relations with the States of their nationality, and its recommendations for the proper and prompt consular assistance as an essential safeguard against arbitrary detention.

In the case at hand it is respectfully submitted that the Working Group finds as well that Mr. Renzo Yasir HUAMANCHUMO CASTILLO has been deprived of his liberty on discriminatory grounds because of his status as a foreign national to use him as bargaining chips in State-to-State relations in violation of articles 2 and 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and articles 2 and 26 of the Covenant (Category V).