![\"Family](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/5c9d\/live\/07478610-4b66-11ef-94e8-85be4519404e.jpg.webp\")
Family handout<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201cShe\u2019s going to rot in jail. No one is going to get her out.\u201d<\/p>\n That was what prison guards told the family of Emirlendris Ben\u00edtez. She disappeared in Venezuela in August 2018 after she and her partner – a taxi driver – were arrested while giving somebody a lift to the city centre.<\/p>\n She was arbitrarily accused of organising a plot to kill the president and, without a fair trial, given a 30-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n When she was taken to prison, she was pregnant. Guards beat her stomach despite her protestations, and she had a miscarriage.<\/p>\n Her family tell us she has faced torture in prison, including having her nails removed with a hammer.<\/p>\n The human rights group Foro Penal says there were 15,700 politically motivated arbitrary arrests in Venezuela between 2014 and 2023 and hundreds of people remain behind bars.<\/p>\n It is one of many ways the government has cracked down on dissent.<\/p>\n The BBC asked the government and prosecutor for a comment or interview and have received no response.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro has been in power since taking over from his mentor Hugo Ch\u00e1vez in 2013 and is seeking re-election on Sunday.<\/p>\n Photos of him line the streets, and on the last day of campaigning in Caracas hundreds of buses were paid for to transport people from around the country to his final rally where free food parcels were handed out as an incentive to attend.<\/p>\n Venus, a woman at the rally, says Mr Maduro\u2019s PSUV party has given her many \u201cbenefits\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are here to support Nicolas Maduro to the end,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Iv\u00e1n, another supporter, says \u201cto those who oppose us, those who say there is no democracy, that there is a dictatorship here\u2026 this revolution will continue to shine”.<\/p>\n Even some supporters of Mr Maduro, though, have fallen victim to the crackdown on dissent.<\/p>\n A family member of Emirlendris, Ana (not her real name), spoke to us on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n Her family voted for Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez before him, but say now \u201ceverything changed because we realised how justice works in Venezuela\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe government is desperate because it knows it has lost. Many people have opened their eyes and are realising the reality we live in in Venezuela. In the name of Almighty God, I hope that a new president wins for a better Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n The last election was widely seen as neither free nor fair, many countries refused to recognise Mr Maduro as president, and the US imposed further sanctions on Venezuela.<\/p>\n For the first time in years, the opposition feel they have huge momentum and a lead in the polls – making it harder for the governing party to claim victory.<\/p>\n But the government has deployed a range of tactics with the armed forces, electoral and judicial authorities which it controls to pre-emptively suppress the opposition. They include detaining critics, uninviting EU election observers, and preventing millions of Venezuelans overseas from registering to vote.<\/p>\n Alcides Bracho is a teacher who was detained on 4 July 2022 after going to a protest calling for better salaries.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are talking 800 days without an increase, and it is a salary of $3.50 per month,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n But after the protest, he was arrested and accused of \u201cterrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey came to the house, approximately 22 people with long rifles. Guns that looked like those in action movies or boys\u2019 video games. Without a search warrant.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He was forced to stand naked for 72 hours while he was held in detention, with no access to food, water or a toilet after being sentenced to 16 years in prison for \u201cconspiracy\u201d and \u201ccriminal association\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought I was going to die.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to start a business in Venezuela, let it be a prison. They charge you for everything. The state does not give you food,\u201d he said of the lack of even the most basic things in jail.<\/p>\n He was eventually released in a prisoner exchange with the US last December in which 19 political prisoners were freed in exchange for Alex Saab, an accused money launderer with close links to President Maduro who was indicted in the US.<\/p>\n Despite what happened to him, Mr Bracho wants to keep fighting.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we all keep quiet, if no-one does it, there is no fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere is an upswing in repression. We are very worried. It\u2019s not like I can start my life again, I don\u2019t have a safe space.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The opposition leader, Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, was banned from running in Sunday’s election, dozens of her team have been detained, and even food stalls that served her have been shut down.<\/p>\n Most television and radio stations are state-run, with many other digital media outlets being blocked.<\/p>\n Bus TV is a campaign of volunteers who read out \u201creal news\u201d on buses around the country.<\/p>\n Andr\u00e9s Brancovic is one of the volunteers. He thinks \u201ccensorship\u201d could affect the election.<\/p>\n \u201cTwitter is one of the most used apps in Venezuela right now, because people can post what they want and see what is happening. But people who just have national TV in their houses – they don\u2019t see what is happening with the opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll the news is in favour of the regime,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Despite having the world\u2019s largest known oil reserves, Venezuela is desperately poor. More than half the population of Venezuela lives in poverty, and nearly eight million people have fled the country – contributing to a migration crisis on the US border.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Jhonatan Marcano lives with his family of five in one small room.<\/p>\n He goes out fishing every day in a rubber tyre, often in dangerous tides, to feed his family.<\/p>\n He cannot afford a boat, nor fuel for one. He relies on the tide to bring him back to land every day.<\/p>\n \u201cI always voted for the people who are in charge. Ch\u00e1vez inspired confidence in me.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, though, he is undecided: \u201cHelp doesn\u2019t come, what you need most does not come to you. I\u2019m so disappointed in the party.\u201d<\/p>\n President Maduro blames US sanctions for the country\u2019s woes, but critics also put it down to corruption and economic mismanagement.<\/p>\n There are reasons the West wants to improve relations with Venezuela – the oil and natural resources the country has, the fact Iran, China and Russia rely on Venezuela as an ally in the West, and because they do not want the US migration crisis to worsen.<\/p>\n But it is unlikely sanctions will be lifted and the government recognised if the vote is seen as unfair again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Supporters](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/26c6\/live\/eb5d1c70-4b66-11ef-9dde-8160ee3d931b.png.webp\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Ana\"](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/de50\/live\/291a7850-4b67-11ef-9dde-8160ee3d931b.png.webp\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Alcides](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/0349\/live\/81741d80-4b67-11ef-9dde-8160ee3d931b.png.webp\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Bus](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/cae5\/live\/ccdbdb50-4b67-11ef-9dde-8160ee3d931b.png.webp\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/f09c\/live\/3f44cc10-4b68-11ef-9dde-8160ee3d931b.jpg.webp\")
Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n