“Thank you, President Donald Trump.” “I’m here today asking for his sentence to be as long as possible — the maximum,”
A Venezuelan woman who says she was severely burned by military forces during an anti-government protest in Caracas in 2021 appeared Monday outside a Manhattan federal courthouse, urging a judge to impose the harshest possible sentence on Nicolás Maduro.
The woman, who identified herself only as Carmen, said she immigrated to the United States shortly after the incident and now works at a community center in New Rochelle. She joined dozens of demonstrators outside the courthouse as Maduro pleaded not guilty inside to federal narco-terrorism charges following his capture in the United States over the weekend.
“I’m here today asking for his sentence to be as long as possible — the maximum,” Carmen said. She explained that she chose not to use her full name out of fear for the safety of family members who remain in Venezuela.
Holding a photo on her phone showing the burns she suffered, Carmen said she was targeted by government forces simply for participating in protests and expressing her views.
“I was tortured for expressing myself and having my opinion,” she said. “They threw boiling water on me because of the protests. I was not allowed freedom of speech.”
Carmen said she was disturbed by a small group of counter-demonstrators outside the courthouse who criticized Maduro’s arrest.
“Whatever they think is completely opposite of what Maduro is,” she said. “He’s a murderer, a criminal. They wouldn’t understand what it’s like to be hungry or to go to a hospital and not receive help.”
She added that protesters in the United States face no such risks. “They can protest here and nothing will happen to them,” she said. “In Venezuela, they would be oppressed or shot at.”
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