On the afternoon of Monday, October 8, Fernando Albán, councilor for the Libertador municipality, died while he was being held at the Venezuela Plaza headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) from Friday, October 5. Tarek William Saab, Attorney General appointed by the National Constituent Assembly, released the information through a telephone contact with the official channel, Venezolana de Televisión:
"We have had knowledge a few minutes ago of the suicide of the councilor of the metropolitan area of ​​Caracas, Fernando Alberto Albán Salazar. The preliminary version that our officials have collected at the scene of the events, we barely knew the news, is that the citizen requested to go to the bathroom and being there was thrown into the void from a floor 10. The causes why he actually did go to clarify them, we will investigate them in all their magnitudes. "

Minutes later, Néstor Reverol, Minister of Interior and Justice, posted a message via Twitter where it differed from the details offered by William Saab:

"At the time that the detainee was going to be transferred to the court, being in the waiting room of the Sebin, he threw himself through a window of the facilities falling into the void, causing his death."


Attorney Joel Garcia, part of the council's defense team, questioned the statements of the Attorney General from the adjacencies of Sebin. He recalled that Alban, like all prisoners, are under the orders and care of the State, in this case the officials of the Sebin.

"How is the Prosecutor going to talk a priori about a suicide when a fact just happened, when he was not even an eyewitness? Talking about suicide a priori already indicates the bias of the research in which we are going to be present ".

Councilman Albán was arrested at the Maiquetía International Airport after spending a few weeks abroad visiting his children and participating in diplomatic meetings at the United Nations Organization. His relatives knew his whereabouts 48 hours after being arrested.

Primero Justicia, party where Albán militated, had classified the event as "forced disappearance" and denounced the violation of due process. Hours before knowing his death, the political awn demanded through the social networks the transfer of the councilman to the Palace of Justice to know his state of health. The messages were accompanied by the tag # DondeEstáFernandoAlbán.

Upon hearing of his death, they expressed their rejection of the Prosecutor's version through a statement:

"With deep pain and thirst for justice we went to the people of Venezuela (...), to inform that Councilman Fernando Albán was murdered by the regime of Nicolás Maduro, in the SEBIN of Plaza Venezuela. Tarek William Saab, a renowned executioner of the dictatorship, reported an alleged suicide. But Fernando Albán's fighting companions and friends know that he was a strong man with deep Christian values. "

Death that leaves many doubts

The death of the councilman of the Libertador de Caracas municipality, Fernando Albán, continues to generate more questions than answers. Contradictions between the prosecutor Tarek William Saab and the Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, Néstor Reverol, on how the events occurred, feed more doubts about his death.

You have to start from the government version of suicide to ask the first questions:

What prompted Fernando Albán, leader of Primero Justicia, to commit suicide? What was the reason for someone who, in a very normal way, had plans to travel abroad, to take the sudden decision to take his own life? What made the difference between an international air ticket in Maiquetía and the imprisonment ticket in the Sebin ?.

"Albán made the harsh decision to take his own life just because he was imprisoned? Or was it the good treatment they gave him and that shocked him and decided to end his life? Or were the physical and / or psychological tortures received (or both at the same time), which led to induced or forced suicide? "

Spain and the US request response and clarification of death

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, convened on Tuesday, October 9, the ambassador of Venezuela in Spain, Mario Isea, to ask for explanations for the strange circumstances that have surrounded the death yesterday of the Venezuelan opposition councilor Fernando Albán while he was detained .

Borrell conveyed to Isea his "deepest concern" about the death "in circumstances not yet clarified" of Albán while he was imprisoned in the offices of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service for the failed attempt against Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro, on March 4. August, the Spanish Ministry said in a statement.

The chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate, Bob Corker, spoke on the death of the First Justice Councilman, Fernando Albán Salazar, who in the afternoon of this Monday, October 8, fell from the 10th floor of the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin).

"Today in Venezuela, Fernando Albán, a young opposition leader, died in the custody of the government," the US politician wrote on his Twitter account @SenBobCorker. "This is disturbing and the Government has a responsibility to ensure that everyone understands how it could have happened."

Personal opinion

This death is one of many more that comes the concept of political persecution, attack politicians, persuasive to make them say what they expect or what the government wants them to admit, something like what happened with the deputy Juan Requenses. Unlike Requenses who could withstand these blows the councilman could never endure torture or beatings. So, this will not stop.