Medellín, Colombia — The mother of three former Bolivian National Guard soldiers who were involved in failed attempts in 2019 and 2020 to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, has been arbitrarily detained, according to members of her family.
Merys Perfecta Torres de Sequea, 71, is the mother of brothers Maj. Juvenal Sequea Torres, Maj. Juven Jose Sequea Torres, and Capt. Antonio José Sequea Torres.
According to a missing persons report shared with Latin America Reports by members of her family, Ms. Torres De Sequea was allegedly traveling in a vehicle near her home in Guatire — a city about an hour’s drive from Caracas — on the morning of September 20 when the car she was in was intercepted by multiple vehicles.
The report said that masked men wearing all black exited the driver — Ms. Torres De Sequea’s neighbor — from the vehicle and boarded the car in which Ms. Torres De Sequea and her niece, Ana Zoris Gutiérrez Torres, were riding in and drove off.
The family hasn’t heard from their mother or the authorities since.
The family said that they suspect that Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Police (PNB) and the country’s General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), was involved in their mother’s detention.
“The [Venezuelan] state has deprived my mother, Merys Torres de Sequea, and Zoris Gutiérrez Torres, of their legal rights,” said Fatima Sequea Torres, Merys’ daughter, who is no longer in Venezuela. “Enforced disappearance is a crime against humanity,” she said, adding that her mother is on medication for hypertension, arthritis, and back problems.
Ms. Torres De Sequea’s family recently denounced the kidnapping to international bodies including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), according to a letter shared with Latin America Reports. The NGO Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners (CLIPPVE) also denounced the arbitrary detention online earlier.
“Mrs. Merys Torres, the Captain’s mother, is an elderly woman who suffers from severe hypertension, for which she must take two pills a day. Her family questions the risk posed by an elderly woman with a delicate health condition being treated this way,” wrote CLIPPVE on their X account.
Copy of letter from Inter-American Commission on Human Rights related to the detaining of Merys Perfecta Torres de Sequea. Image credit: family of Merys Perfecta Torres de Sequea.
The Sequea brothers
Antonio José Sequea Torres, 43, was a captain in the Bolivarian National Guard, a military force that also polices the civilian population.
On April 30, 2019, the captain was part of a small contingent of military personnel and civilians that staged a limited, and ultimately unsuccessful, uprising in Caracas to unseat Maduro and install then-opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s president.
While the attempted coup d’état fell flat, and would lead to Guaidó’s eventual exit as a major opposition figure in Venezuela, “Operation Freedom” as it became known, was successful in freeing another opposition figure, Leopoldo López, from house arrest. López later fled to Spain.
After going into hiding, Antonio José Sequea Torres reappeared again on May 3, 2020. This time, on a small boat off the coast of Venezuela packed with 47 former Venezuelan soldiers as well as former members of the U.S. military.
Operation Gideon, also referred to as the “Bay of Piglets,” was a spectacularly unsuccessful coup attempt involving Florida-based mercenary Jordan Goudreau, shadowy Latin American political consultant J. J. Rendón, and Juan Guaidó’s presidential commission.
The failed amphibious assault, launched from Colombia, resulted in the deaths of six coup plotters and the arrest of dozens more, including former U.S. Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry. The two soldiers were returned to the U.S. in 2023 in exchange for Alex Saab, Maduro’s alleged bagman who helped his regime avoid sanctions for years.
Capt. Antonio José Sequea Torres was detained by Venezuelan security forces in May 2020. Image credit: Globovisón via Facebook.
Antonio José Sequea Torres is currently imprisoned in Rodeo 1, a prison in Caracas which has been accused of grave human rights violations.
Antonio’s brothers, Maj. Juvenal Sequea Torres and Maj. Juven Jose Sequea Torres, were convicted and sentenced to six years in prison in Colombia in 2021 for their role in the failed coup plot.
According to the Associated Press, the brothers reached a plea agreement with Colombia which helped them avoid more serious charges of providing military training to the armed plotters.
The United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stipulates that “egregious examples of arbitrary detention include detaining family members of an alleged criminal who are not themselves accused of any wrongdoing.”
As of November 12, there were over 882 political prisoners detained in Venezuela, 116 women and four adolescents, according to rights group Foro Penal.
Featured image: Merys Perfecta Torres de Sequea and Ana Zoris Gutiérrez Torres.
Image credit: Voluntad Popular via Facebook.
