Overview
- Venezuela’s prisons ministry disclosed Thursday in a public statement that Víctor Hugo Quero Navas died on July 24, 2025, citing acute respiratory failure caused by a pulmonary embolism after a transfer to a military hospital.
- National prosecutors opened a criminal investigation and ordered an exhumation, which authorities carried out as part of the case review.
- Quero’s mother, Carmen Navas, was taken to the gravesite in Caracas and asked for a DNA test to confirm the identity of the body after learning of the burial.
- Officials said the state buried Quero in July 2025 because no family presented documentation, while relatives and NGOs say his mother spent 16 months seeking information without access or answers.
- Opposition leader María Corina Machado called the death an assassination and urged the release of all political prisoners, as NGOs note at least 27 politically detained people have died in Venezuelan custody since 2014.