CARACAS, Aug 6, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Four actors taking part in a satirical
play about two gay police officers were freed Monday night, nearly 24 hours
after they were arrested and accused of ridiculing and usurping the functions
of Venezuela’s authorities.
Actors Pedro Wise and Isaias Ovalle had been arrested on Sunday following a
performance of “Two Cops in Trouble,” which has been running at a Caracas
theater since July 19.
Director Leonam Torres and producer Johana Villafranca were also arrested,
and all four were accused of “the crime of usurping public function when
pretending to present a theatrical piece while wearing the regulatory
uniform” of police, according to an official dispatch leaked to Venezuelan
media outlets.
The report said the actors had tried to “ridicule and distort the true
functions of police,” and that their outfits were confiscated as evidence.
A photograph of the detainees alongside their wives, together with police
in camouflage uniforms was shared by online media.
A lawyer representing the detainees said performances of the play would
resume Tuesday, but the actors would use “facsimiles of uniforms” and not the
original costumes.
Ovalle had predicted his arrest in an Instagram story published on Sunday.
“If I wake up chopped up, incinerated, kidnapped or dead, you’ll know why.
It’s not a game, it’s serious, so come and see the show before it gets closed
down,” Ovalle wrote.
Carlos Correa, director of the Espacio Publico (Public Space) NGO,
described the arrests as a “barbarity.”
“It’s an open violation of the human right of freedom of expression. The
theater is a place for criticism,” he told AFP.