Open Letter: Deep concern about the arbitrary detention of University of Essex Graduate Enrique Márquez in Venezuela

As university educators at a University with a global outlook, we are proud of the diversity of our student cohort, who come to study at Essex from all corners of the world and from all walks of life. This extremely diverse student body enriches significantly the educational and research environment at the University. It enhances the Essex learning experience and helps prepare students to engage with a world that is increasingly interconnected in the many challenges it faces and also in the opportunities if affords.

Many Essex graduates have gone on to lead incredible careers in public service, in global governance, local government, private enterprise and scientific research. Enrique Márquez from Venezuela is one such graduate. He graduated from the University of Essex with a masters’ degree in Electronic Systems Engineering in 1994.

Márquez worked as an electronic engineer and taught engineering at the School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Zulia. From 2021 to 2023, he was Vice President of the National Electoral Council of Venezuela (CNE), the body in charge of carrying out elections in Venezuela.

Márquez was also a Presidential candidate in the 28 July 2024 Venezuelan presidential elections under the support of the People-Centred Party. These presidential elections took place in a context of significant repression, with UN experts having raised concerns about allegations of serious human rights violations occurring in the context of the elections and their aftermath, including arbitrary detentions, excessive use of force against demonstrators, unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, unlawful dismissals, revocation of passports, persecution, and prosecution of political opponents and people exercising their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, and violations of due process and irregularities during and after the elections.

Given the irregularities, Márquez and others had demanded the publication of the voting records from the 28 July 2024 elections. Márquez also rejected the ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice that ratified Maduro's re-election.

In the context of a campaign of persecution, arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances meted out against politicians and staff of the democratic opposition to the regime, on 7 January 2025, just days before the inauguration of Presidential Maduro, Enrique Márquez was arrested by security forces, together with a number of others.

At the time of writing Márquez and many others remained arbitrarily detained, ostensibly for exercising their rights to express dissent against the election process and the governmental apparatus.

We urge the Venezuelan State to comply with their obligations to respect the human rights of all Venezuelans, including those who express dissent. We call on the Government to immediately release from arbitrary detention Enrique Márquez and others who have been arbitrarily detained on account of the exercise of their right to freedom of expression, to guarantee their safety, and to clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing persons.