The Daily Journal — Authorities released 29 workers from the Turkish-Venezuelan joint mining company Mibiturven on Wednesday night after they spent one year and two months in detention, according to the non-governmental organization Foro Penal. Prosecutors had accused the employees of several offenses, including trafficking in strategic materials.
Foro Penal Vice President Director Gonzalo Himiob confirmed the measure through a post on X, stating that authorities completed the releases at 8:50 p.m. local time (01:50 GMT).
Military Arrest Without Initial Justification
The case began on April 1, 2025. On that date, officers from the Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence carried out an operation at the facilities of Mibiturven—a binational corporation formed by Venezuela’s state-owned mining company Minerven and the Turkish firm Marilyns Proje Yatirim—located in Bolívar, a southern border region near Brazil.
During the operation, officers initially arrested 31 workers. According to relatives of the detainees, officials refused to provide any information regarding the reasons for the arrests.
Later, local media reports revealed that the court case supporting the arrests dated back to 2019. Family members strongly challenged that discrepancy because several detainees had worked for the mining company for only one month before authorities arrested them.
Procedural Irregularities and a Death in Custody
The Public Prosecutor’s Office formally charged the workers with criminal association, money laundering, trafficking in strategic materials, and failure to comply with corporate responsibilities.
Throughout the 14-month detention period, relatives of the miners repeatedly reported serious procedural delays and ongoing violations of due process. Among the alleged irregularities, authorities barred private defense attorneys from formally representing the detainees and denied access to the case file and to the evidence that supposedly justified the criminal charges.
During the detention period, the original group of 31 detainees decreased for two separate reasons. One worker obtained conditional release, while another worker died while under state custody.
