Daniela Larreal, Venezuelan cyclist and critic of Maduro's dictatorship, dies at age 50
The Olympian had been missing since Aug. 12. Police officers found her body in a hotel in Las Vegas, the city where she fled and went into exile.
Venezuelan Olympic cyclist Daniela Larreal died Aug. 11 in Las Vegas of asphyxiation.
Venezuelan Olympic cyclist Daniela Larreal died on Aug. 11 at the age of 50, as confirmed by Venezuelan opposition figure, Henrique Capriles who said goodbye to the athlete through a post on X:
Missing since Aug. 12, the corpse of the Venezuelan athlete appeared this Friday in her apartment in Las Vegas, the city where she moved after being forced into exile after criticizing the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro.
The Las Vegas Police Department found Larreal's body. They did so after going to her home, alerted by colleagues of the athlete, who worked at a hotel in Las Vegas, who, after not hearing from her, decided to notify the authorities.
As reported by Spanish newspaper ABC, the preliminary autopsy revealed that the athlete, one of the most important in the recent history of Venezuela, died on Sunday, Aug., 11 due to presumed asphyxiation.
Nevada authorities state that during the autopsy they found solid remains of food in her trachea, reason for which they consider that the cyclist could have drowned. However, they reported, the investigation is still open and the cause of Daniela's death has not yet been made official.
Daniela Larreal, staunch opponent of Nicolás Maduro
Larreal, who participated in five editions of the Olympic Games (Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, and London 2012) joined Vente Venezuela in 2018.
She had expressed opposition to the Maduro regime two years earlier. She did so by criticizing the Venezuelan Ministry of Sport and denouncing the corruption that existed in sports in her country.
"This government intends to hide, behind the athletes, all the foreign currency that is being stolen. To Venezuelans I say: Maduro is not giving us anything, the resources of the athletes are a duty of the state, that is what the law dictates."
Her statements resulted in her receiving several death threats, so she decided to go into exile in the United States, but not before publicly expressing the harassment to which she was being subjected: "I want to inform those who are sick of power that their disqualifications against me do not affect me, they make me proud as a Venezuelan and I will fight," said the athlete at that time.
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