The wife, Romina Botaro de Marquez- and underage children (8 and 5) of Juan Jose Marquez, the maternal uncle of National Assembly President Juan Guaido, are not allowed by police loyal to the Nicolas Maduro regime to leave their home as it is being raided.
Marquez’s lawyer Joel Garcia told that officers from military counterintelligence agency -DGCIM- are carrying out the raid. Local human rights NGO Provea says DGCIM was been blamed by victims in 62% of all known torture cases in Venezuela in 2019.
Garcia was not allowed to enter the building by DGCIM agents. “I knocked on the door and them pusher me, took me out of the apartment. She called me when she was being raided. I don’t dare call her because she has got to be very attentive about anything they might be planting. We know that’s what the government does, plant. She is with the children,” Garcia said.
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Juan Guaido’s wife, Fabiana Rosales, was also present at the scene, where she told assembled media: “Romina is by herself with the children…they are trying to break us by mistreating our families”.
At 8:58 a.m. assembled journalists and onlookers had a chance to see agents taking bags into the building. Rosales managed to get in, but Garcia was left out.
Marquez disappeared on February 12th, when he arrived from Portugal with Guaido, for allegedly carrying a bullet-proof garment. One day after the arrest, Maduro’s number two man Diosdado Cabello said during a television show that Marquez was also carrying C4-type explosives on him from Portugal. Both Portugal and TAP Airlines rejected these accusations.
