A former Institute of Economic Affairs wonk has been abducted in socialist Venezuala for campaigning for democracy. Jesús Armas was working at the IEA in 2020 and has since become the organiser of the successful María Corina Machado campaign in Caracas. Efforts to monitor vote tallies in Venezuela’s July election proved that Machado’s candidate Edmundo González had beaten socialist dictator Maduro by a wide margin…
Armas, a Bristol University graduate, was last seen at 2100 last night exiting a coffee shop when he was abducted by men in a Toyota Fortuna. Guido hopes his safe return can be secured as quickly as possible…
UPDATE: The IEA has written to Lammy regarding the abudction. Read the full letter below:
“Dear Foreign Secretary,
Jesús Armas, a former intern of the Institute of Economic Affairs and graduate of the University of Bristol, has been arbitrarily detained by the Venezuelan Government.
Jesús, a human rights activist and social leader who spoke out for freedom and democracy, was arbitrarily detained on December 10, 2024, at 9:19 PM Caracas time. Six masked agents forcibly took him in an unmarked silver Toyota Fortuner SUV.It is believed that Jesús is being held at El Helicoide, a well-known torture center in Caracas, under the custody of SEBIN, Venezuela’s political police. However, the Venezuelan authorities have failed to confirm his whereabouts. His status remains that of enforced disappearance.
Jesús played an important role in the opposition campaign during the July 28 presidential elections, in which Nicolás Maduro was defeated. Maduro has refused to recognize the result and launched a brutal crackdown on opposition figures. Jesús’ case is one of over 2,000 arbitrary detentions recorded since the election. Many have faced torture or worse.
I am writing to ask you to make representations to the Venezuelan authorities for the immediate release of Jesús and others like him who have been arbitrarily detained.
Jesús is an Obama Foundation scholar and spent time in the UK as he received a Chevening Fellowship to complete his master’s degree at the University of Bristol (2019-20). He is remembered very fondly by everyone who worked alongside him at the IEA.He saw the United Kingdom as a beacon of liberty in the world. I hope you will agree that, as a principled advocate of democracy and freedom on the world stage, the British government should make its views on this matter clear to the Maduro regime.
I have copied this letter to the British Embassy in Venezuela.
Yours sincerely,
Tom Clougherty
Executive Director
Institute of Economic Affairs”
Starmer spoke to Nick Robinson for the Today Programme on Polanski’s criticism of the Golders Green police officers:
“I want everybody just to imagine what it might be like. You’re trying to arrest someone who has already attacked two people and has no regard for life. We know that tasers were fired. I know from my own experience with the police, that there are only two shots in a taser, and once you’ve shot them, there’s nothing left. There’s a guy on the ground, he’s got a rucksack on. And I don’t know what was going through the mind of those officers, but if I was there, I’d be thinking, he’s going to detonate something. He’s going to blow me up and everybody around here. In those circumstances, I think you can quite see why what could have gone through their mind is, we need to do whatever we can to disable this guy…
Now, when I then see Zack Polanski come out and retweet or support a criticism of that, I think it’s disgraceful… He’s not fit to lead any political party.”
