“My brother disappeared and a month later he was accused of being a mercenary”: uncertainty of Colombians de

Diana Tique stopped hearing from her brother Manuel on September 14, 2024.

“He traveled to the border between Colombia and Venezuela for some training. The Venezuelan authorities asked for his passport and took him to a 'routine' interview. Then we learned from the NGO he works for that he had been detained,” Tique tells BBC Mundo.

Manuel Tique's family didn't hear anything else until October 17.

That's the day the video was published on YouTube in which Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello announced the arrest of individuals of various nationalities accused of being mercenaries.

“My brother was among them,” Diana acknowledged.

According to Cabello, Tique, 33, had entered Venezuela under the guise of belonging to an NGO, but in reality, the minister claimed, he was a paramilitary recruiter and an assistant to “mercenaries and terrorists.”

“At least Venezuela admitted that it had detained him and we obtained some initial information,” Diana explains.

Both Tique's family and the NGO The Danish Refugee Council, which employs him, claims not to know why he was arrested.

They say it was his first time traveling to Venezuela and the border. They also rule out a criminal record.

The Colombian Foreign Ministry counts at least 37 Colombians detained in Venezuela in circumstances similar to Tique's since July 28, 2024.

On that day, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of an election whose minutes have not been published and whose result is disputed by the opposition and questioned by international organizations.

Since then, thousands of people have been arrested in Venezuela. Some common charges are “mercenaries,” “terrorists,” or “disturbing public order.”

These are crimes that can carry sentences from several months to tens of years in prison.

Organizations such as Amnesty International denounce that “virtually all” of the arrests “were arbitrary and motivated by political reasons,” since they occurred far from or long after the unrest that occurred after the elections.

Gustavo Petro’s government in Colombia does not officially recognize Maduro’s term, but defends maintaining diplomatic relations, citing reasons such as border security and stability.

In conversation with BBC Mundo, the Colombian vice minister of multilateral affairs, Mauricio Jaramillo, said that they are doing “work to accompany the families of those detained, but the question of what Venezuela understands by mercenarism, for example, should be answered by the authorities there.”

BBC Mundo contacted a source from the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office to inquire about the condition of the Colombians, but they responded by saying that “for now they will not offer comments.”

In an interview in January with this media, the Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab discredited reports of human rights violations made by international organizations and argued that people are being detained because they “committed punishable acts.” Venezuelan authorities claim they have released 2,006 people since the end of 2024, but UN Commissioner Volker Turk had only confirmed around 1,500 as of last June. Turk also reported that the arrests continue. A 5-minute call, according to Minister Cabello, was the last time the family heard from the industrial engineer, who specializes in environmental management and education, for months. At the end of January 2025, six Americans were released from prison by Caracas after President Donald Trump sent his official Richard Grenell to meet with Maduro. One of the Released, “David” shared a cell with Tique.

“From 'David' we learned that many foreigners were detained in Rodeo I prison, that they were given food three times a day, that they had little to do and that they played mental chess between cells,” Diana says.

“They have no space to interact or communicate with the outside world. They live in isolation,” she adds.

Once again, months went by without news.

On May 15, Tique’s family received a call from an international number.

“It was Manuel, asking mainly about how the family was. He only spoke for five minutes,” Diana says.

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC), which has been providing humanitarian assistance in Colombia since 2018, asserts that Tique remains without access to a trial or consular assistance.

“This constitutes a serious violation of human rights and the fundamental principles of justice,” DRC said in a statement.

BBC Mundo was unable to independently verify all of the DRC’s allegations because the Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office refused to provide statements.

However, Colombian Deputy Minister Jaramillo says that “in some cases they are asking for greater control over the process; visits to ensure the physical and mental health of the detainees and that they have ongoing correspondence (with their families).”

“But in the most fundamental cases, we cannot express ourselves,” explains Jaramillo, citing “principles of respect for Venezuelan sovereignty.”

Diana Tique found other families with similar cases: individuals who traveled to Venezuela for various reasons, whether for work or to visit relatives, and who ended up detained incommunicado.

“We organized sit-ins so that the Foreign Ministry would assist us.” and do more for us,” says Tique.

During these negotiations, she met Viky Latorre.

Repeated Stories

Latorre’s husband, Martin Rincon, a palm grower by profession, was also detained by Venezuelan authorities in September 2024.

“On the 30th, he traveled to the Arauca international bridge and we stopped hearing from him. Eight days later, we learned on social media that he was captured by the Bolivian National Guard,” Latorre tells BBC Mundo.

As happened with Tique, Latorre did not hear directly from Rincon until May 15, the same day that most of the detainees were allowed to briefly call their loved ones.

Latorre has emerged as a kind of spokesperson for 18 families of the 37 Colombian detainees known to the Foreign Ministry.

She says that all the cases are similar, with “illegal” arrests, “lack of due process,” and “violation of rights.”

To this day, they do not know the status of the charges. Everything is uncertain.

“We do not know what they will be accused of because we have not heard of any proceedings in any court in Venezuela. We fear that they will be accused of terrorism or political issues that have nothing to do with them since they have no ties to Colombian or Venezuelan politics,” explains Latorre.

According to the latest information the families have, Rincon, like Tique, is imprisoned in Rodeo I prison.

Prison in the spotlight

Manuel did not give details about the conditions at Rodeo I to his sister during the call. Diana thinks he did it to protect his family and keep them out of the loop.

“But we know from other people who called that the cells are small,that they are given little water and that they are only taken out into the yard for an hour a day, hooded, so that they get some sun,” Diana says.

“Imagine being hooded and not knowing where they will take you each time,” she adds.

Rodeo I is located in the state of Miranda, not far from Caracas.

Although BBC Mundo was not able to see firsthand the conditions described by Diana Tique, Rodeo I has long been in the sights of international organizations.

In June 2024, a month before the controversial presidential elections, several international organizations sent a harsh letter to Venezuela’s Minister of Penitentiary Affairs.

In it, the signatories say they have received information that the prison conditions at Rodeo I are “cruel, inhuman and degrading and, in certain cases, could amount to torture.”

Torture, they recalled in the letter, It is a “peremptory norm of international law.”

“We demand that the integrity and life of all persons in your custody be guaranteed, including those arbitrarily detained for political reasons and whose freedom we demand immediately and unconditionally,” according to the letter.

Delicate Relations

In diplomatic relations, every word can generate misunderstandings.

The question of what constitutes “mercenaryism” or not does not seem to be something on which the Foreign Ministries of Colombia and Venezuela agree right now.

While in Caracas it is commonly used to accuse foreigners who allegedly enter the country to try to overthrow the government, in Bogota the term is increasingly rejected.

“I would not like those detained in Venezuela to be associated with 'mercenaries.' We are reducing the practice because many of the recent cases we have detected in our country are individuals who have been deceived,” says Jaramillo.

BBC Mundo has reported cases of former Colombian soldiers who have been deceived into traveling for supposed surveillance work in countries such as Ukraine, Sudan, and Mexico.

President Petro himself has used the word “mercenaries” to refer to the phenomenon.

Researchers interviewed by BBC Mundo in the past also reject the use of the adjective lightly.

“Now,” reiterates Jaramillo, “I cannot comment on what Venezuela considers a ‘mercenary.’ It would offend sensibilities in a time of good relations.”

Caracas and Bogota share a history of turbulent coexistence.

Depending on the governments in power, this can become friendly, cordial, tense, or even nonexistent,as happened in 2019 when Maduro broke off relations with Ivan Duque's administration after the latter recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president.

Among Colombian internationalists and politicians, there are diverse opinions on the current state of bilateral ties.

Some criticize that Petro's not breaking off relations with Venezuela and maintaining the relationship is legitimizing his government even if he doesn't recognize it.

Others think that cases like that of the detained Colombians would be even more challenging if diplomatic ties didn't exist.

This is something that will hardly reassure families like Tique and Rincon who, despite the apparent good moment between Caracas and Bogota, live in uncertainty and distrust the outcome of the Colombian Foreign Ministry's efforts.

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