Freed Venezuelan vows to fight
injustice against jailed foreigners

MINUTES after being freed of drug charges which kept him in jail for the last three years, a Venezuelan businessman yesterday related a tale of injustices against foreigners incarcerated in Trinidad and Tobago’s prisons and vowed to stand up for their rights. He also promised to make up for precious time lost with his two-year-old daughter, Gabrielle, who was one month old when the prison gates closed behind him.

On December 18, 2000, Jose Longa Pedroza was arrested by police at a Diego Martin guest house and charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking after lawmen allegedly found 149 packets of cocaine rocks, weighing a total of 48 grammes in his apartment.

After an hour’s deliberation, a nine-member jury returned a verdict of not guilty in favour of Pedroza in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Criminal Court.

As he emerged from the Hall of Justice, hand-in-hand with his smiling wife Caroline, Pedroza told Newsday of what he claimed were the grave injustices committed against persons jailed in this country’s prisons, especially foreigners.

“The calamities, the oppression they see in there. That’s not supposed to be so. Somebody has to stand up. The oppression that you have being 23 hours incarcerated, not being guilty of any offence. That is wrong. At least in the Golden Grove, you could say that you have more comfort but in town..nastiness!” he declared.

Pedroza said he spent eight months at the Port-of-Spain State Prison and the remainder of his incarceration at the Golden Grove Maximum Security Prison in Arouca.

“I go stand up for my rights and for the rights of many people, especially foreigners. Who come in here, even as an illegal entry, being charged as a criminal and being brought to a big jail where they have criminals all over the place.

“It is only in Trinidad and Tobago that they are treating foreigners in the manner that you do here and that, somebody has to stop that. The higher authorities have to know what is going around in the Prison Service of Trinidad and Tobago.

“A Guyanese came inside for a case, he finished his case nine months ago. He is waiting nine months for deportation. That’s unfair. Every Guyanese coming here and all the Venezuelans coming here illegal. They are staying two three months before being deported to their country. That is unfair. Only in Trinidad that ever happens. I will stand up for them,” Pedroza declared and walked off with his wife, eager to return to their Princes Town home.

His attorney Ulric Skeritt said: “The jury has done what they have done and they have sent a clear message to the police officers they are not in fact going to accept police officers doing work and interfering with other people’s property. They (police) have in fact taken an oath to do justice and they should do that.”

The case was presided over by Justice Malcolm Holdip while attorney Nalini Singh prosecuted for the State.