Orlando Figuera

Orlando Figuera Esparragoza (1996 – 4 June 2017) was a young Venezuelan attacked during the 2017 protests in the country. Before his death, Orlando blamed the attack on a group of people who were feuding with him for work-related reasons: "Malandrín"; "Pecas"; "Menor"; "Oriental" and "Mono". The day after Orlando Figuera's death, Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz denied that Figuera was the victim of a hate crime or attacked for being a Chavista, as alleged by the government version. As of 2022, no person has been tried for Figuera's murder.

Death According to investigations conducted by the Venezuelan Public Ministry's Office, on May 20, 2017, in the Altamira urbanization of the Chacao municipality of Caracas, Orlando Figuera, 22 years old, found himself in a protest scene with a subject with whom he had previously had an altercation over a job vacancy in Parque Miranda, who upon seeing him assaulted him with a melee weapon and began shouting at the crowd and accusing him of stealing so that he was assaulted.

According to information provided by the Attorney General's Office in the Balance of victims killed and injured during demonstrations in April-June 2017:

Subsequently, Figuera was assisted by members of Salud Chacao and taken to the in El Llanito, where authorities took Orlando's statement. Figuera was admitted to the hospital with first and second degree burns in 80% of his body, as well as with several stab wounds. Figuera also stated that he was stabbed by "Malandrin" and described the protagonists as "a black guy, another blond, an Asian, a kid...".

Orlando's mother, Inés Esparragoza, affirmed that in spite of receiving a lot of help from the government, the doctors at Domingo Luciani did not take good care of her son, saying that "My son was never treated" and that "of the 15 days he was hospitalized, they cleaned his burns only one day, and it was the day before his death, he already smelled bad". Orlando Figuera died in the intensive care unit in the early morning of June 4, fourteen days after being attacked. Esparragoza was told contradictory versions of his death: One hospital doctor told him that his son had been intubated because he had suffered a stroke, while another later told him that Figuera had suffered a respiratory arrest. Esparragoza has declared that "When they took me to see my son's corpse, he was not intubated" and that "he was as if asleep, he looked like a monster and was full of blood everywhere". According to the pathologist of the , Orlando died of a skin infection.

The day after Orlando Figuera's death, Luisa Ortega Díaz denied that Figuera was the victim of a hate crime or attacked for being a Chavista, as alleged by the government version. Days later, Chacao councilman declared to Globovisión that the young man was not attacked for being a Chavista, but because he was accused of stealing and argued that neither the attackers nor the victim were part of the protest taking place in the place. Inés Esparragoza rejected the theory that her son had been stealing. The government narrative assured that a mob of angry demonstrators attacked him confusing him with a person affiliated with the government and pointing him out as an "infiltrator". The official state communication system prepared videos on the case and Figuera's parents were interviewed by the Minister of Communication himself, Ernesto Villegas. Villegas alleged that the motive for the attack was Figuera's political leanings. President Nicolás Maduro alleged that Figuera was attacked because of his race and social condition.

Investigations

On 20 June 2017, state-run Venezolana de Televisión television channel reported that the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) had identified Enzo Franchini Oliveros, 32 years old, as the alleged material author of the attack on Figuera after breaking into his residence in Caracas. Neither the Public Prosecutor's Office nor the Scientific, Criminal and Criminalistic Investigations Corps (CICPC) had mentioned Oliveros' name. On 5 August, the National Constituent Assembly, controlled by the ruling party, removed Luisa Ortega Díaz as Venezuela's attorney general and appointed Tarek William Saab as her replacement on the same day. The profiles and professions offered by Orlando Figuera to the Public Prosecutor's Office before his death did not match to that of Enzo and his white helmet when he was present at the protest, and Figuera does not hold Enzo responsible for the attack in his testimony. Enzo managed to leave the country before the SEBIN could arrest him, and after residing for a time in the United States, Franchini moves to Valencia, Spain, and later Madrid. His mother, Elena, argues that if he had really done something wrong "he would have decided to go to Italy, as its constitution prohibits the extradition of its nationals", and has stated that for at least two years the Maduro regime has accused and criminalized Franchini in social networks and on television programs, using labels such as "right-wing hitman", "member of the Ku Klux Klan", "Odebrecht corrupt " and "terrorist". The National Court of Spain (Audiencia Nacional) ordered Enzo's imprisonment and he was transferred to . Saab declared that he would be charged with "public instigation, terrorism and aggravated intentional homicide". According to prosecutor Marcelo Azcarraga, the documentation sent to Spain does not describe any criminal activity of the defendant, only that Enzo was present in the place and at the time of the event, as well as other people, without describing "direct participatory behavior", and that in Spain with an indictment with such description of the facts, the sentence would have to be acquittal. His pro bono defense attorney, Ismael Oliver, pointed out that Orlando Figuera's statement to the Venezuelan Public Prosecutor's Office identifies those responsible for the attack: "El Malandrín", "El Pecas", "El Menor", "El Oriental" and "El Mono" and Keylis Alexander Sierra, who is indicated as the material author of setting fire to Figuera, and questioned that a claim was made "against a person who is proven, duly accredited, that he did not participate nor was involved in these events". Oliver also indicated that the documentation sent was illegible, argued that little readable text distanced Enzo from the events, and recalled both the human rights situation in Venezuela and what would happen to any person who was handed over to Venezuela. but revoked the decision on 30 September due to fears that his fundamental rights would be violated.