Venezuela’s socialist regime on Thursday admitted that one of its political prisoners, Víctor Hugo Quero Navas, has been dead since July 2025 — a revelation that comes after a 16-month desperate search by his 82-year-old mother.
Quero Navas was a 50-year-old Venezuelan businessman who was arrested by the Venezuelan socialist regime in January 2025. For over a year, Quero Navas’s 82-year-old mother Carmen Teresa Navas and his family declared through several methods — including social media — that they had no contact with their relative and had no information on his actual whereabouts.
His family repeatedly accused the Venezuelan regime of subjecting Quero Navas to conditions of forced disappearance. On April 21, 2026, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary protection measures for Quero Nava and his mother and detailed that the institution had not received any information from the Venezuelan regime over the political prisoner’s whereabouts or his conditions, urging the regime to allow the elderly woman exercise her right to defend her son without being subject to any kind of intimidation or harassment.
On Thursday, the Venezuelan Penitentiary Services Ministry released a statement claiming that Quero Navas allegedly died under state custody on July 24, 2025, of “acute respiratory failure secondary to pulmonary thromboembolism” after spending ten days hospitalized at the Dr. Carlos Arvelo Military Hospital in Caracas. The Ministry said that his body was buried on July 30, 2025 — a decision that the Venezuelan authorities took, they claimed, because he “did not provide any information about family relationships or any relatives and no one presented to request a formal visit.”
“The Ministry of Popular Power for the Penitentiary Service stands ready to cooperate with the relevant authorities in reviewing the case, extends its condolences to the family, and guarantees the return of the remains,” the statement read in part.
Venezuelan lawyer and activist Gonzalo Himiob reportedly detailed to the Spanish news agency EFE on Thursday that Quero Navas had been detained by officials of the Venezuelan regime’s General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) in January 2025 and accused of “treason to the homeland, conspiracy, and terrorism.” He never faced trial or received due process in the face of these charges.
Minutes after the regime issued the statement, Venezuelan outlets published footage of Carmen Teresa Navas visiting the improvised tomb of her missing son. The Miami-based outlet EVTV pointed out that the tomb lists his date of death as “July 27, 2025,” three days after he died according to the official statement.
The unclear circumstances surrounding Quero Navas’ imprisonment and death have raised a series of questions over what exactly happened to the political prisoner. The Spanish newspaper El País reports that the Venezuelan Ombudsman’s office had informed in an official October document that Quero Navas was imprisoned at the Rodeo I prison in the town of Guatire, near the capital city of Caracas — three months after the alleged July 2025 date of death. Carmen Teresa Navas reportedly asked Rodeo I prison authorities if her son was at the detention center on twelve different occasions.
According to El País, the only clue that the mother had of her son’s whereabouts came this year after she began sharing pictures of Quero Navas with the relatives of other political prisoners. Inmates who shared prison cells with Quero Navas reportedly conveyed a message to the mother indicating that they had indeed seen her son, who they used to call El Ruso (“The Russian”) due to his skin complexion. They shared that they had seen him fall very ill with stomach issues between July and August 2025. According to the prisoners’ testimony, Quero Navas was only fed grains by the prison’s staff.
On Friday, the Venezuelan Public Prosecutor’s Office — controlled by the socialist regime — ordered the exhumation of Quero Navas’ body and the start of an investigation into his case. Venezuelan journalist Oliver Fernández reported on Friday morning that officials from CICPC Scientific Police corps were exhuming the remains of the political prisoner.
Anti-socialist Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado accused the socialist regime of arresting, disappearing, torturing, and murdering Víctor Hugo Quero Navas, and condemned his case as a “crime against humanity carried out with absolute impunity.” Machado stressed on social media that Carmen Teresa Navas spent 16 months going from prison to prison searching for her missing son, which contradicts the Venezuelan regime’s claims that no one sought to visit the prisoner.
“She was met with mockery and silence — until today, when she was informed that her son has been lying in a grave for the past nine months,” Machado wrote.
“For Víctor Hugo, for Carmen’s courage, and for every victim of this tyranny: We will not stop until there is justice and freedom in Venezuela,” she concluded.
According to the non-government organization Foro Penal, there are at least 454 documented political prisoners remaining in Venezuela as of April 27, 2026. The Venezuelan regime, now led by “acting President” Delcy Rodríguez, began an “amnesty” process this year that saw the release of hundreds of political prisoners following the January 3 U.S. law enforcement operation authorized by President Donald Trump that resulted in the arrest of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Rodríguez declared in late April that the amnesty process was “finished” and that any remaining political prisoners should pursue other legal venues for their release. Quero Navas’ mother and lawyers had reportedly requested amnesty benefits for the now-deceased political prisoner.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.