Draft:Juan Freites

Juan José Freites Cabrejos (c. 1991)^[1] is a Venezuelan politician and economist. He served as regional coordinator of the opposition party Vente Venezuela in La Guaira state and led María Corina Machado's 2024 presidential campaign in that state. He was arrested by Venezuelan security forces on 23 January 2024 and held incommunicado for some 27 days before being located at El Helicoide detention centre in Caracas. He was released on 22 February 2026 after more than two years in custody.^[2]

Freites trained as an economist at the Universidad Alejandro de Humboldt and later took a postgraduate degree in strategic planning and political analysis at the Catholic University of Andrés Bello (UCAB).^[3]

By the time of his arrest, Freites had been a member of Vente Venezuela for six years, serving as its training coordinator in La Guaira before being appointed regional coordinator and campaign manager for María Corina Machado's presidential bid in the state. According to opposition sources, security officers took him from his home in La Guaira on 23 January 2024 and his whereabouts were not disclosed. Two other Vente Venezuela coordinators—Luis Camacaro in Yaracuy and Guillermo López in Trujillo—were detained the same day.^{[3] [4] [5]}

On 25 January 2024, Camacaro and Freites were brought before the Caracas Palace of Justice. According to media reports, more than thirty officers of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) cleared the building of the defendants' private lawyers and relatives, and the initial hearing went ahead with court-appointed counsel.^{[6] [7]}

Vente Venezuela rejected the accusations and called for the immediate release of its coordinators.^{[3] [8]} Machado said the arrests violated the 2023 Barbados Agreement between the government and the opposition.^[9]

Freites's lawyers wrote to the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asking for an investigation. On 31 January 2024, they filed a brief with the Defensoría del Pueblo seeking "the defence of the constitutional and procedural rights of these persons".^[8] On 16 February, they reported that the coordinators had been held for 25 days without their place of detention being disclosed.^[10] Relatives and counsel visited several detention centres without obtaining confirmation; after 27 days—in what Vente Venezuela described as a forced disappearance—Freites was located at El Helicoide.^{[11] [12]}

• Political prisoners during the Bolivarian Revolution
• Forced disappearance
• Vente Venezuela
• El Helicoide
• Foro Penal