Venezuelan Doctor Sentenced for Criticism of Government
Margie Orozco, a 65-year-old doctor from Venezuela, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after criticizing the government led by socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro in a voice message on WhatsApp, according to reports from Venezuelan media.
A Venezuelan court found Orozco guilty of charges including “treason” and “incitement to hatred” for sending messages that criticized Maduro’s regime. In her messages, she also urged people to contest a presidential election that Maduro claimed to have won on July 28, 2024.
The only prominent center-right party in Venezuela, Vente Venezuela—headed by Maria Colina Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate—stated that Orozco’s only crime was expressing dissatisfaction over the regime’s handling of household gas cylinder distributions in her area.
On August 5, 2024, Orozco was arrested by law enforcement in San Juan de Colon during a crackdown on dissent following a contested election. After her arrest, she was moved to a women’s prison in Tachira in December. Reports from a local NGO indicate that she has suffered two heart attacks in the last two years, with one happening during her detention. Local medical groups have called for her release due to her health concerns.
Venezuelan laws permit maximum prison sentences of 30 years for certain crimes. Since 2017, Maduro’s government has used vague “anti-hate speech” laws to target dissidents, often accusing individuals of spreading “hateful content” without a clear definition of what that entails.
In October, Maduro launched a new smartphone app aimed at encouraging citizens to report what they see and hear about dissent against the government. Although the app, dubbed VenApp, was removed from major app stores following public complaints, it remains available through other means.
Last year, Orozco revealed that an individual supportive of Maduro had filed a complaint regarding her WhatsApp messages, which led to her wrongful imprisonment. This person is allegedly involved with the government’s food distribution program, CLAP, in her community.
CLAP, or “Local Committees for Supply and Production,” is criticized for distributing low-quality food to impoverished Venezuelans. It was started by Maduro in 2016 to address rising hunger attributed to failed socialist policies. Many have condemned CLAP as a tool for social control, where local regime supporters can exploit food access to exert power over communities.
Links between Maduro’s regime and corrupt practices within the CLAP program have been documented, including connections to Alex Saab, who has been described as Maduro’s chief money launderer. Saab was detained by U.S. authorities in 2020 while trying to launder large sums of stolen funds. He returned to Venezuela in December 2023 in a prisoner exchange and is currently serving as Maduro’s industry minister.
