The National Bolivarian Police raided a club for the LGBT community in Venezuela without a warrant on July 23, after allegedly receiving an anonymous call about noise pollution. Thirty-three men were arrested.
Lawyers and relatives of the detainees denounced discrimination because the police found nothing irregular in the premises. They said the charges are unjustified: outrage of modesty, association to commit crimes and noise pollution.
Not only was the detention irregular, but the photographs and names of the detainees were leaked by the police to the media, which represents a violation of their rights under Venezuelan law. With this information they were publicly accused of participating in an “HIV orgy.”
The police only offered photographs of condoms and lubricants as evidence of the alleged crimes. One of the detainees told Al Jazeera after being released that they were allowed a phone call. “That’s when I started to feel disoriented, like, what’s going on? They didn’t even tell us that we were arrested,” as they went as witnesses to the police headquarters in their own cars, according to another of the detainees.
They were publicly accused of participating in an “HIV orgy.”
Relatives of the arrested and members of LGBTQ rights organizations protested as a sign of solidarity in a couple of cities. The family members told the media that the club does not host sex parties, as the police had said, it is only a place where men from the gay community of the city of Valencia meet.
However, even if they did host sex parties, the Venezuelan Penal Code does not establish consensual relationships between adults of the same gender in a private place as a crime, lawyers explained.
One of the detainees later explained to the BBC that the police report does not mention an orgy, it indicates that they were dressed and there was the noise of conversation. But, within a few hours, they were considered criminals in the public eye, he said. A policeman showed them a viral video on TikTok of them with moralistic narratives, which upset many of them, who at that time they did not know what they were accused of and were thinking of their relatives with whom they had not been able to talk.
The virality of the alleged orgy, and the treatment by the police, made them feel ashamed of their sexuality and guilty of acts they had not done, he said during the interview.
For its part, the Venezuelan Observatory of LGBTIQ+ Violence described the arrests as “state-sponsored homophobia”. In a statement they wrote: “Such charges are unfounded and simply an attempt to justify discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community. It underscores the significant obstacles LGBTQ+ people face in Venezuela because of their sexuality or gender identity.”
After 72 hours of detention, 30 men were released on conditional liberty. The judge dismissed all defense motions during the first appearance — 30 must report regularly to the police and three have arrest warrants. The club owner and two workers were detained an additional 10 days in a cell with criminals. Some of those who spoke later with international media mentioned that they lost hope in the law, not knowing what the future held for them with this case.
Family members also explained that the condoms, which were considered evidence of an orgy by the police, are frequently donated to the club by organizations that promote protection against sexually transmitted diseases.
Lawyer Tamara Adrian, Venezuela’s first transgender legislator, explained to Runrun.es that it was an irregular process. Regarding the crime of indecent behaviour, “it cannot be charged because it was not public, it was inside a closed locale where there was no possibility of access to the view of third parties.”
Meanwhile there was no crime to speak of conspiracy or “agavillamiento,” which implies the association of more than two persons in order to commit a crime. Regarding noise pollution, it only applies to the owners of a premises, not to the customers.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Tamara Adrián mentioned that the long-term effects of the message of persecution against LGBTQ people are worrisome. She linked the arrests to an attempt by Nicolás Maduro to reach out to evangelical Christian communities to bolster his support ratings and win votes in the 2024 elections. This theory is based on meetings the ruling party has held with these religious groups this year to consult on initiatives related to family policies.
The theory is not inconceivable. Maduro has already started to make moves in view of the 2024 presidential elections, where he is again running for reelection. This year, the National Assembly dissolved the board of the National Electoral Council and designated a group of people, among them Maduro’s wife, to elect the new directive.
After the arrest, more than 130 human rights organizations demanded justice. They warned that these homophobic policies could become a pattern of criminalization of the LGBTQ population, which represents a setback for freedoms in Venezuela.
Image: Nixiras
