Geraldine Chacón

Geraldine Patricia Chacón Villarroel Legal orders for her release, issued by the Venezuelan judicial system, were ignored by the prison authorities. Chacón was finally conditionally released on 1 June 2018. At age 14, she participated in local city youth government. She was an exchange student at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) in Paris, France in 2013–2014. She could not attend graduation to receive her law degree because she was in prison.

Chacón worked as a litigation and court assistant in a legal firm,

In 2012, Chacón was the founder of the Amnesty International Venezuela Network at the Universidad Metropolitana (UNIMET Network).

Chacón worked as a volunteer with the Latin American nonprofit organization Un Techo para mi País whose goal is to provide safe housing. It has been reported to have reached over as many as 1000 individuals in 3 cities, 11 communities and 13 educational institutions in Venezuela,

Detention On 31 January 2018 at noon, SEBIN officials searched the offices of the Community Ambassadors Foundation, without a court order or witnesses to the proceedings. The house of Geraldine Chacón was raided in the early morning of 1 February 2018 by SEBIN officials. Chacón was told that she was going to be interviewed and was taken to El Helicoide, where she was detained, in spite of the officers not having an arrest warrant. However, officials at the SEBIN facilities, both in the administrative headquarters and in the detention center, repeatedly declared that they had no such order ("no tienen órdenes para acatar") and Chacón remained in arbitrary detention. A prisoner of conscience (POC) is a prisoner of conscience or people who, although they have not advocated or resorted to violence, have been imprisoned for being who they are (because of their sexual orientation, origin ethnic, national or social, language, birth, color, sex or economic situation) or by what they believe in (for their beliefs, political ideas or other deep convictions).

Hunger strike On 16 May 2018, detainees in El Helicoide staged a peaceful protest, barricading themselves in a section of the cells and requesting independent mediation by the Catholic Church and other organizations. One of their requests was that judicial release orders of detainees such as Hinds and Chacón be honored. On 18 May 2018, Chacón was one of 18 women who went on a hunger strike.

Prison conditions

Geraldine Chacón was held in a cell with 25 women, with little or no access to drinking water, clean clothes, sanitary facilities, medicines or other medical services. She was not allowed to go outside in the sunlight, to see family members or to see her lawyers. There was concern that the "conditions of detention could constitute torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment". However her case has not been formally closed by the Venezuelan authorities, placing her at risk of re-imprisonment. She is not allowed to leave the country. Amnesty considers her to be at risk, and continues to appeal on her behalf.