Venezuelan mother dies 10 days after state confirms missing son died in custody

Machado says the woman who died was not just a grieving mother but a symbol of resistance

Carmen Navas, the 82-year-old mother who spent nearly a year searching for her detained son in Venezuela, has died just 10 days after the government confirmed he had died in state custody, the NGO that handled his case reported.

Navas became a prominent figure in Venezuela while publicly pleading for information on her 50-year-old son, Victor Quero. Ten days ago authorities revealed Quero died of respiratory failure in the infamous Rodeo I prison last July.

Foro Penal head Alfredo Romero said prison officials had repeatedly told Navas they did not know where her son was.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado mourned Navas on social media, praising her for confronting a "terror apparatus" to find her son.

"Not just a mother died; a woman who turned pain into courage and despair into denunciation was extinguished," Machado wrote, adding that Navas' voice had become that of thousands of mothers seeking disappeared or imprisoned children.

Early this year, after the US attacked Caracas and captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Venezuela's government passed an amnesty law intended to free hundreds of people rights groups consider political prisoners.

Venezuelan authorities have always denied holding political prisoners and said those detained committed legitimate crimes.