Lorent Saleh

Lorent Enrique Gómez Saleh (born 22 July 1988) is a prominent Venezuelan opposition activist and president of the Operación Libertad civil-rights group.

Saleh was arrested in Colombia in September 2014, where he had been since February aiming to raise awareness about Colombian guerillas allegedly being trained by the Venezuelan government. He was deported after Colombian authorities said he had been involved in political work that violated the terms of his visa. Gabriel Valles, who was working alongside Saleh, held a press conference about Saleh's arrest the following day, and was himself detained and deported to Venezuela.

Driven across the border, the men were separately handed over to the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service. Between 2014 and 2018, the men were held without trial in La Tumba, an underground prison in Caracas. A legal hearing for Saleh was postponed 52 times.

In 2017, Saleh was one of eight Venezuelans awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament as a representative of all Venezuelan political prisoners documented by the human rights organisation Foro Penal (Penal Forum).

Activism In 2009, Saleh cofounded an organisation in opposition to the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. In February 2011, he began a hunger strike in front of the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Caracas with 13 other young people as the national coordinator of the Active Youth Organization Venezuela Unida (JAVU). demanding the release of , José Sánchez Mazuco and Judge María Lourdes Afiuni, among other people considered as political prisoners, and asking Secretary General José Miguel Insulza to be "more forceful in the face of the government's crimes." Saleh was accused the same year of the crime of "disseminating false information that causes distress" along with Gabriel Vallés, another student activist, when they were arrested with slingshots and other materials to use during the protests and with posters pointing at then-President Chávez to lying about his electoral promises.

On 2 May 2011, members of the Bolivarian National Guard fired shots at some demonstrators and evicted several youths, including Saleh, who had chained themselves to the gates of the Judicial Circuit of Barinas to demand the release of Delfín Parra Gómez, a military man who was processed. for alleged corruption in the Central Agroindustrial Azucarero Ezequiel Zamora (Caeez) and whom the youth considered a political prisoner. Saleh was severely beaten and detained, and as a result of the event, judicial proceedings were opened for the alleged crimes of resistance to authority, basic type injuries and violent outrage against a public official. His mother, Yamileth Saleh, was also imputed during the presentation hearing. At the beginning of July, Saleh was arrested by the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) while he was arriving at a peaceful protest on Urdaneta Avenue, in Caracas. He was released hours later. In December he is arrested again by unidentified individuals after landing at the Santo Domingo airport in Táchira. On 20 April 2015, Lorent tried to commit suicide in his cell, which was stopped by SEBIN officials. His lawyer denounced that by then he had not received a response from the Public Ministry about the request for psychiatric evaluations of Saleh and Gabriel Valles.

In 2017, Saleh was one of eight Venezuelans awarded the Sakharov Prize, along with other detainees considered political prisoners by the European Parliament.

On 22 January 2024, the Colombian justice system condemned the Colombian state for the irregular expulsion of Lorent Saleh in 2014, sentencing it to pay 195 million pesos for the moral and material damages caused to Lorent Saleh and his mother.