Venezuela: Arbitrary detention of woman human rights defender Martha Lía Grajales

On 8 August 2025, lawyer and woman human rights defender Martha Lía Grajales was detained by police agents after participating in a solidarity activity in front of the office of the United Nations Human Rights Office in Caracas. Her whereabouts were only made public on 11 August 2025, through a public statement by the Public Prosecutor's Office on social media. The woman human rights defender has been assigned a public lawyer despite requesting access to her own lawyer. To date, neither the woman human rights defender’s family nor her lawyers have been allowed to visit or contact her.

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Martha Lía Grajales is a lawyer and woman human rights defender from Venezuela. She is a member of the Surgentes collective, a human rights organisation supporting marginalised communities, dedicated to research, technical and political assistance and advocacy for public policies that promote human rights and the democratisation of society. Through these initiatives, it has promoted capacity building and the organisation of marginalised groups, ensuring that they are informed about their rights and the relevant mechanisms available to enforce them.

On 5 August 2025, woman human rights defender Martha Lía Grajales took part in a vigil in front of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice in Venezuela. The vigil was organised to bring attention to those who were unfairly detained and accused of terrorism for participating in protests in the context of the presidential elections of Venezuela in July 2024. She was accompanied by other human rights defenders and sixty mothers of those detained. During the vigil, a group of unknown armed people approached the group, attacked them, and stole their belongings, including Martha Lía Grajales’ identity card. The woman human rights defender tried to file a report on the attacks and thefts before the Public Prosecutor and the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigation Corps, but both institutions refused to process the complaint.

Another solidarity activity was organised few days after, on 8 August 2025. A group of mothers and human rights defenders, including Martha Lía Grajales, stood in front of the United Nations Human Rights Office in Caracas protesting against the events on 5 August. After the activity was over, the woman human rights defender was stopped at a police checkpoint and was asked to show her identity card. The checkpoint was set up a few metres from the protest site by the Criminal Investigations Division (DIP) attached to the Bolivarian National Police (PNB). While the woman human rights defender explained that her identity card had been stolen during the attack on 5 August, a grey van without number plates approached the scene and forced her to get into the vehicle.

The partner of the woman human rights defender and representatives of the human rights organisation PROVEA visited five detention centres attached to the DIP of the PNB in Caracas without obtaining any information about Martha Lía Grajales’s legal situation or whereabouts. On 9 August 2025, the president of the Criminal Court Circuit of the Caracas Metropolitan Area refused to hear a habeas corpus petition in favour of Martha Lía Grajales.

Finally, on 11 August 2025, the Public Prosecutor's Office posted a statement on Instagram confirming the detention of Martha Lía Grajales “after an arrest warrant was issued against her for actions against Venezuelan institutions and the peace of the Republic”. The statement also included that the woman human rights defender is currently in pre-trial detention for alleged crimes of “incitement to hatred, conspiracy with a foreign government, and association”. PROVEA was then informed that Martha Lía Grajales was detained at the Criminal Investigation Directorate of the PNB in Maripérez, a detention centre that they themselves and the woman human rights defender’s partner had already visited four times without receiving any information on her whereabouts. The woman human rights defender has been assigned a public lawyer even though she requested to have access to her own lawyer. To date, neither the woman human rights defender’s family nor her lawyers have been allowed to visit or contact her.

The detention and incommunicado status of Martha Lía Grajales demonstrate the increasing criminalisation and systematic targetting of human rights defenders in Venezuela, particularly in the wake of the widespread protests that followed the 2024 presidential elections. The case of Martha Lía Grajales, alongside those of the previously reported human rights lawyers Rocío San Miguel and Eduardo Torres, demonstrates a clear pattern of human rights defenders being detained without due process or respect for judicial guarantees.

Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the arbitrary detention of woman human rights defender Martha Lía Grajales, and views it as an attempt to stop her legitimate human rights work in Venezuela.

Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Venezuela to:

1. Immediately drop all charges against woman human rights defender Martha Lía Grajales as they are motivated by her legitimate and peaceful work in defence of human rights, by ensuring her rights to due process, access to justice, and legal representation of her choice;
2. Take all necessary measures to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of woman human rights defender Martha Lía Grajales and guarantee her physical and psychological security and integrity;
3. Ensure that the treatment of woman human rights defender Martha Lía Grajales, while in detention, adheres to the conditions set out in the ‘Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment', adopted by UN General Assembly resolution 43/173 of 9 December 1988;
4. Ensure that all human rights defenders in Venezuela are able to conduct their peaceful and legitimate activities without undue restrictions and without fear of harassment, threats or retaliation, including judicial harassment.