Petition for the immediate release of Wuilly Arteaga, 23, violinist

As a musician and Amnesty International Honorary Consul, I, Gabriela Montero, ask my colleagues to please consider the following appeal in respect of Venezuelan violinist Wuilly Arteaga (23).

Regularly photographed since April playing his violin in front of Venezuela’s murderous National Guard, Wuilly has become a potent symbol of defiance and resistance in Venezuela, bravely joining millions of fellow citizens in protesting to the world the total collapse of Venezuela as a functioning nation state, in the most peaceful and poetic manner available to him.

He was arrested over two weeks ago. Since his arrest, he has been brutalised by the regime. He has endured burns and has been so severely beaten that he has lost hearing in one ear. According to Alfredo Romero, of the legal group Foro Penal Venezolano, he has not been permitted medical attention since his most recent beating under detention.

The severe humanitarian crisis in Venezuela is now evident to the world. It no longer belongs to an academic, armchair conversation about the political left or right, but to an urgent need for concerted action by the global community, irrespective of personal political preferences, to bring pressure on a Venezuelan regime that arbitrarily holds hundreds of men and women like Wuilly prisoner, and an entire nation hostage to tyranny.

In the most noble traditions of peaceful, conscious, creative dissent, I ask my fellow musicians to please lend your signature and solidarity to this letter demanding the immediate release of Wuilly Arteaga.

Gabriela Montero
August 15th, 2017