Venezuelan Political Prisoner, a Former Prison Chief, Dies in State Custody

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VENEZUELA · HUMAN RIGHTS

Eleiner Sánchez, a jailed former prison director, died in state custody in Venezuela on Sunday 27 September, human rights groups reported. The opposition party Vente Venezuela describes her as a Venezuelan political prisoner.

The Venezuelan Prisons Observatory (OVP), a non-governmental watchdog, said she had asked for medical help for days before she reached a hospital. Relatives and union members protested in Caracas on Monday, and a union leader called a march on the presidential palace.

Who Eleiner Sánchez was

Sánchez, a lawyer, ran the 26 de Julio prison for people awaiting trial in Guárico, a state in central Venezuela. She had held the post for only 53 days when she was arrested in December 2024, TalCual reported.

The Public Ministry, Venezuela’s prosecution service, said she was held between 6 and 8 December 2024, in a raid on her prison. The then attorney general, Tarek William Saab, alleged that she had a romantic relationship with an inmate, Wilfredo Sánchez, known as “Dinamita”.

Prosecutors described him as a leader of the Tren del Llano, a criminal gang. They alleged that the relationship let mobile phones, firearms and drugs into the prison, NTN24 and the pro-government site Aporrea reported.

Prosecutors listed more than 100 smartphones and over two tonnes of suspected drugs seized in the raid. Her letter, quoted by Diario Las Américas, said many things in the prison were “going on long before I took the post”.

What her family and the opposition say

Her son, Eliézer Sáez, has said many times that she held evidence of corruption inside the prison system, according to the OVP. He links that evidence to her arrest and to the violation of her rights.

Vente Venezuela, the party of opposition leader María Corina Machado, said she was detained for “reporting irregular acts” in Guárico. “What happened is a very serious situation that cannot go unpunished,” the party wrote on X, the Spanish news agency EFE reported.

Sánchez had spent 660 days in detention and had applied for amnesty in April 2026, the news site El Pitazo reported. In late July acting President Delcy Rodríguez’s government said 8,084 people had benefited from its amnesty law, Infobae reported.

How she died, according to rights groups

The OVP said Sánchez had health problems for several days and asked to be moved to a hospital. “Her pleas were ignored until her condition became critical,” the group wrote on X on Monday 28 September, La Verdad reported.

On Sunday she was taken to the Victorino Santaella Ruiz hospital in Los Teques, a city near Caracas. Doctors found a severe intestinal obstruction that needed emergency surgery, according to Vente Venezuela’s human rights committee, cited by El Nacional.

She was held at La Crisálida, a women’s detention centre in Los Teques, after four months in a military counter-intelligence cell. The OVP says it is the second death it has recorded there, after Fabiana Desirée Páez Fernández died in June.

“Her death could and should have been avoided,” the OVP said. Un Mundo Sin Mordaza, a human rights organisation, called for an independent investigation, El Nacional reported.

What the authorities have said

No public comment on her death from the Public Ministry or the prisons ministry had been reported by Tuesday 29 September. The official account of her case remains the one prosecutors gave in December 2024.

On 17 May the prisons ministry announced a health campaign in prisons across the country, with the health and women’s ministries. Its stated aim was “a more humane, safe model” with comprehensive health “as a pillar”, according to the ministry’s website.

At the UN General Assembly on Wednesday 23 September, Rodríguez said “in Venezuela there will be elections”, the state-funded broadcaster teleSUR reported. She said her government had begun a political dialogue with parts of the opposition.

More than 60 deaths since April

The OVP said on Monday 28 September that more than 60 people had died in state custody since April. Most were ordinary criminal inmates rather than political detainees, La Verdad reported.

For scale, the group counted 181 deaths in prisons and police cells in all of 2025. It linked 151 of them to a lack of medical care in a report published on 2 June, EFE reported.

Another recent case was Luis Alejandro García, 30, who died in the prison at Tocuyito in Carabobo state. The count and that case were set out in Venezuela Frees 24 Political Prisoners as Jail Deaths Top 60 Since April.

The government acknowledged the custody death of political prisoner Víctor Quero only in May, ten months after it happened, EFE reported. Venezuelan prisons hold far more people than they were built for, with occupancy above 150 percent, NTN24 reported on 28 September.

Monday’s protest and the march on Miraflores

Teachers, health workers, pensioners and relatives of political prisoners marched in Caracas on Monday 28 September, TalCual reported. They demanded better pay, an election timetable and the release of all political prisoners.

Police barricades near the headquarters of state oil company PDVSA blocked the route, so marchers went to the prisons ministry instead. A delegation of relatives went inside and asked the authorities to clarify Sánchez’s death, TalCual reported.

Carlos Salazar of the Coalición Sindical, a union alliance, called a new march for next week to reach Miraflores, the presidential palace. “No election timetable has been given, not all the political prisoners have been freed,” he told the crowd.

Relatives have gone to the palace before, Efecto Cocuyo reported. On Friday 11 September their delegation was received for a few minutes behind a glass window.

What Is Not Yet Known

The authorities have not published a cause of death or said whether an investigation is under way. The account of her final days comes from the OVP, Vente Venezuela and her family, and could not be independently confirmed.

It is also unclear whether her amnesty application, filed in April, was ever decided. No court ruling on the 2024 accusations against her has been reported, and her son’s corruption claims have not been tested either.

What comes next

Organisers plan to march on Miraflores next week, though no date has been announced. Jorge Rodríguez, the government’s chief negotiator, said on Friday 25 September that US-backed talks with the opposition resume in mid-October.

Her death does not mean the talks have failed, and prisoner releases continued this month. Relatives at Monday’s protest demanded the immediate release of every Venezuelan political prisoner, Efecto Cocuyo reported.

More: Venezuela news in English, every day from The Rio Times.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Eleiner Sánchez?

A lawyer and prisons ministry official who ran the 26 de Julio prison in Guárico state for 53 days. Prosecutors arrested her in December 2024, accusing her of helping a gang leader inside the jail.

Why is she called a Venezuelan political prisoner?

The opposition party Vente Venezuela and her family say she was jailed for reporting wrongdoing in the prison system. Prosecutors presented her arrest as a criminal case over alleged gang links.

How many people have died in Venezuelan prisons?

The Venezuelan Prisons Observatory counted more than 60 deaths in state custody from April 2026 to 28 September, and 181 in 2025. The figures are the group’s own tallies.

What is Miraflores?

Miraflores is the presidential palace in Caracas, the seat of Venezuela’s government. Relatives of political prisoners marched there on 11 September to deliver their demands.

This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated AI newsroom. Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief. The Rio Times also runs Ask Rio Times, which answers from 100,000+ of our own articles, the daily Latin America Power Map, and prediction-market odds on elections and markets.. How we use AI · Report an error