Venezuela regime arrests U.S.-based YouTuber Oscar Alejandro Pérez on 'terrorism' charges

A Venezuelan YouTuber was arrested on Sunday at the Simón Bolívar airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela, accused of "terrorism-related activities," according to a statement released by his relatives.

Oscar Alejandro Pérez Martínez was detained at the airport as he was about to travel to Canaima, in the south of the country, one of Venezuela's best-known tourist destinations. Pérez, with over a million subscribers on his YouTube channel, more than 580,000 on Instagram, and 81,000 on TikTok, is based in Miami, United States, and often records the trips he takes to different cities worldwide.

Relatives indicated that Pérez Martínez, 37, is detained at the facilities of the Scientific, Penal, and Criminal Investigations Corps (CICPC), in the counterterrorism division, in Caracas.

Following the arrest, his followers began to recall his visit to Nicaragua and the consequences it brought him. The YouTuber reported earlier last month that Daniel Ortega's dictatorship managed to "take down" the first episode of a series he recorded in Nicaragua, due to an image rights claim.

The content creator explained that his production team used several seconds of footage from a Nicaraguan propaganda outlet to explain to his followers what is happening in that country.

"It is the ratification that in Nicaragua there is no freedom of expression, that anyone who wants to express an opinion, or criticize, or freely say what they think, cannot do so, and that is why there is a lot of fear among all the people who live in the beautiful country of volcanoes and lakes," Pérez expressed days after the video was removed from YouTube.

According to Espacio Público, a Venezuelan non-governmental organization documenting cases of censorship, it is expected that the YouTuber will be presented before the 2nd control court of the Metropolitan Area this Monday, April 1st.

#DenunciaEP | Funcionarios venezolanos detuvieron en el Aeropuerto de Maiquetía al creador de contenidos en la plataforma YouTube, Oscar Alejandro Pérez Martínez, cuando se disponía a tomar un vuelo con destino a Canaima, este domingo 31 de marzo. pic.twitter.com/YHtoP7jDjY

— Espacio Público (@espaciopublico) April 1, 2024

"The detention of individuals for publishing content on the internet has been recurrent in Venezuela. The state criminalizes legitimate informational activities of citizen communicators, activists, journalists, and human rights defenders. Judicial harassment in these cases aims to silence content that may be considered critical of the government, which constitutes a violation of the right to freedom of expression", the group stated on its website.