“He still can’t believe he’s free. He was in prison for a long time. It was 3 years, 7 months, and 12 days,” she said, noting that while in prison, her brother had lost “any sense of what life is like on the outside.” Mariela Ferreira reveals that when her brother was notified he would be released, he didn’t believe it, and “it was his colleagues who had to help him come to terms with it.
“Now he’s home (…) He’s quite thin, he’s a bit pale and lacks energy (…) what’s concerning is his psychological state, which has been severely affected,” she said. Mariela Ferreira also explained that Héctor Ferreira is waiting for the court to rule on his release and on the family’s assets that have been seized.
“Now we just have to wait, but it’s a huge step that he’s home and not in that horribly ugly place,” she said, noting that her brother was sentenced to 18 years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $1.65 million (€1.4 million), despite being innocent.
“Although we had all the evidence in our favor, the trial took place in a terrorism court, and there the decisions are never favorable—they’re always unfavorable,” he said.
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He also explained that on February 23 they filed a request for amnesty, to which there was no response, so they decided to appeal to the National Assembly’s (parliament) Special Committee on the Amnesties Act, chaired by Representative Jorge Arreaza.
“There has been no news yet (…) They merely issued a release order and my brother was released, but we do not know the legal terms of his release (…) so he cannot make any statements,” she said.
Mariela Ferreira recalled the daily efforts made by Portuguese nationals in Venezuela to set an example of hard work and family values, and even to provide jobs for Venezuelans, explaining that at the time of the arrest, the company had been in continuous operation for 65 years. When asked if pressure from Portugal had helped secure her brother’s release, she replied that it had.
“Without a doubt, yes. I’m certain of that,” she said, expressing her gratitude to the Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities, Emídio Sousa, and to the leader of the PS, José Luís Carneiro, the former head of the department, for the efforts made during their recent visits to Venezuela.
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“Everyone came and spoke about the political prisoners, and met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Yván Gil) and with Jorge Arreaza, chairman of the parliamentary committee overseeing the Amnesty Law,” he said. She also noted that the regional director of the Madeiran Communities, Sancho Gomes, had also been in Venezuela and that the Venezuelan Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Europe and North America, Oliver Blanco, had recently visited Lisbon.
For Mariela Ferreira, it is important that Portugal continue to monitor the situation of her brother and the other Portuguese-Venezuelan political prisoners. However, she lamented that although the Portuguese Embassy in Venezuela has been aware of her brother’s case for two years and seven months, the family felt “abandoned.”
“We felt there was no communication from the Embassy with us (…) we only learned that on two occasions, requests for consular visits were made, which were denied,” she said.
The Portuguese government welcomed Héctor Ferreira Domingues’ release on Tuesday and assured that it will continue to work for the “release of political prisoners who are still detained” in Venezuela. “Portugal (…) expresses its deep solidarity with the family on this long-awaited reunion,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized in a post on social media platform X.
“The Portuguese government will continue to work, discreetly but actively, for the release of the political prisoners who are still being held in Venezuela,” the statement added. In February, the non-governmental organization Foro Penal (FP) issued an online alert calling for the release of Héctor Mário Ferreira Domingues, who was arrested “during a raid on the uniform factory he ran in Caracas.”
According to FP, his arrest was based on the statement of an “anonymous cooperating patriot,” who claimed that the company had allegedly negotiated with Monómeros Colombo Venezolanos S.A. (a subsidiary of the Venezuelan state-owned company Pequiven in Colombia) for the sale of materials supposedly intended for the National Assembly.
The FP also reported that “the day after his arrest and the raid, security forces took over the company and continued to work there, which, according to his family and his defense team, suggests that the intention behind the operation was to seize control of the company.”
Sources from the local Portuguese community told Agência Lusa at the time that what happened to the businessman was reported to Portuguese authorities shortly after Ferreira Domingues was detained. According to data from the non-governmental organization Justice, Encounter, and Forgiveness (JEP), 674 people are currently detained in Venezuela for political reasons.
