Lieutenant Commander Rafael Acosta Arévalo:
Born in Coro (Falcón state, northwest of Venezuela) on June 16, 1969, Rafael Acosta Arévalo left his native city to become a Navy official at the age of 17 and so he did. Then, he got accepted into special training to become a Navy Seal due to his skills in 1985, and was part of the Venezuelan Armed Forces until 2005 when he requested an early retirement and dedicated to work in the private and public sectors.
After being accused of conspiring against the regime of Nicolás Maduro, he has put under arrest by the DGCIM (Venezuelan Military Counterintelligence Service) on June 21, 2019. According to the Chief of the Strategic Operations Command of the Armed Forces, Admiral Remigio Ceballos, Acosta Arévalo “conspired against the State of Venezuela for over 10 years.” Also, the regime’s Minister of Communications Jorge Rodríguez said the Navy Captain was implicated with eight others in an alleged plot to murder Nicolás Maduro.
Born in Coro (Falcón state, northwest of Venezuela) on June 16, 1969, Rafael Acosta Arévalo left his native city to become a Navy official at the age of 17 and so he did. Then, he got accepted into special training to become a Navy Seal due to his skills in 1985, and was part of the Venezuelan Armed Forces until 2005 when he requested an early retirement and dedicated to work in the private and public sectors.
After being accused of conspiring against the regime of Nicolás Maduro, he has put under arrest by the DGCIM (Venezuelan Military Counterintelligence Service) on June 21, 2019. According to the Chief of the Strategic Operations Command of the Armed Forces, Admiral Remigio Ceballos, Acosta Arévalo “conspired against the State of Venezuela for over 10 years.” Also, the regime’s Minister of Communications Jorge Rodríguez said the Navy Captain was implicated with eight others in an alleged plot to murder Nicolás Maduro.
Acosta arrived in a wheelchair to a court hearing on June 28 where he was charged with treason and conspiring to rebel. He was showing signs of physical injury, including a body full of abrasions, nails with blood, and bruised eyes. At the time, his lawyer informed the court that Acosta could not either speak or get up. When Human Rights lawyer Tamara Suju asked him whether he had been tortured, he confirmed by nodding his head to the question. Acosta was taken to the hospital right after the hearing on the judge’s orders, where he died around 1 am in the morning of June 29, 2019. His body was taken to an undisclosed location by the DGCIM.
On July 1, Lieutenant Ascanio Tarascio and Sergeant Estiben Zarate were put under arrest. A Caracas court charged them with homicide and ordered they be held in preventive detention.
The autopsy on Acosta found that “the cause of death was severe cerebral edema due to acute respiratory failure due to rhabdomyolysis (musculoskeletal syndrome in victims of earthquakes, bomb attacks, building collapses, electroshocks) due to widespread polytrauma.” In simple words, he was tortured, beaten to death.
Acosta’s wife Waleska Pérez de Acosta publicly denounced her husband’s body hadn’t been handed over to her for proper burial after 11 days of his death. On July 10, 2019, the Navy Captain’s remains were to his family in a controlled operation by the DGCIM. Arévalo Acosta left behind two children, a 12-year-old and a 4-year-old.
On July 1, Lieutenant Ascanio Tarascio and Sergeant Estiben Zarate were put under arrest. A Caracas court charged them with homicide and ordered they be held in preventive detention.
The autopsy on Acosta found that “the cause of death was severe cerebral edema due to acute respiratory failure due to rhabdomyolysis (musculoskeletal syndrome in victims of earthquakes, bomb attacks, building collapses, electroshocks) due to widespread polytrauma.” In simple words, he was tortured, beaten to death.
Acosta’s wife Waleska Pérez de Acosta publicly denounced her husband’s body hadn’t been handed over to her for proper burial after 11 days of his death. On July 10, 2019, the Navy Captain’s remains were to his family in a controlled operation by the DGCIM. Arévalo Acosta left behind two children, a 12-year-old and a 4-year-old.
