Eighteen-year-old Yonaiker Ordóñez was asleep when Venezuelan police barged into his home in Caracas on a Sunday morning in late January. Dressed in helmets and carrying rifles, the men grabbed the teenager and forced him into another room without explaining why they had come.
“They took him to the area behind and killed him there,” says his sister, Yengly González.
The operation resembled one of the many police raids against the gangs that terrorize Venezuela’s poor neighborhoods. But Ordóñez’s only crime, his family says, was that he had attended a protest against the government days before.
President Nicolás Maduro is facing mounting challenges to his authoritarian rule. In January, an opposition lawmaker named Juan Guaidó declared himself to be Venezuela’s rightful interim president. A growing number of foreign governments—including the United States—have backed Guaidó’s claim, and increasing numbers of protesters are taking to the streets, calling for Maduro to step down. There have been violent clashes between opposition protesters and the Venezuelan military.
Eighteen-year-old Yonaiker Ordóñez was asleep when Venezuelan police barged into his home in Caracas on a Sunday morning in late January. The officers had on helmets and carried rifles. They grabbed Ordóñez and forced him into another room without explaining why they had come.
“They took him to the area behind and killed him there,” says his sister, Yengly González.
The operation resembled one of the many police raids against the gangs that terrorize Venezuela’s poor neighborhoods. But Ordóñez’s only crime, his family says, was that he had attended a protest against the government days before.
President Nicolás Maduro is facing mounting challenges to his authoritarian rule. In January, an opposition lawmaker named Juan Guaidó declared himself to be Venezuela’s rightful interim president. A growing number of foreign governments have backed Guaidó’s claim. The United States is among the nations supporting him. Increasing numbers of protesters are also taking to the streets, calling for Maduro to step down. And there have been violent clashes between opposition protesters and the Venezuelan military.