Perkins Rocha, legal coordinator of the Vente Venezuela party and representative of Comando Venezuela to the National Electoral Council, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council by video on June 29, 2026, speaking from house arrest to explain why the regime continues to target him.
Speech Transcript (English Translation):
My name is Perkins Rocha. I am a Venezuelan attorney and served as a national representative to the CNE during the last presidential election. I defended the validity of the election records that showed Edmundo González Urrutia—not Nicolás Maduro—as the winner.
That is why I was violently arrested on August 28, 2024, and confined to a cell by the Maduro government’s political police for 535 days, without contact with or information from my family and without legal representation.
After more than a year and a half imprisoned in darkness, I was transferred out of the Helicoide and remain under house arrest, with an electronic ankle monitor and a 24-hour police presence at my front door.
The other seven people who, like me, were charged by the same court, have been released. I alone am being denied amnesty, and requests to modify the terms of my detention—which would allow me to receive medical treatment for my ailments and physical conditions requiring specialized care—are being rejected. Everyone except me has been released.
The judge who is denying me amnesty has publicly stated his fear of granting me my freedom, as he has been threatened that if he does so, “not only would he be removed from office, but he would also go to prison.” In Venezuela, this is known as the Afiuni effect.
Today, I am the only defendant in my case; the trial has been suspended, and the higher court has not ruled on my appeal.
It is inconsistent that, for the very same offense for which seven people are charged, the decision is made to grant amnesty to six and punish only one. I am being discriminated against for having defended the electoral truth that denies Nicolás Maduro’s victory.
Speaking from House Arrest: Venezuelan Lawyer Confronts the Maduro Regime at the U.N.
