Delcy Rodríguez's intelligence officers threaten US reporter with arrest, demand he stop filming

A correspondent for Real America’s Voice in Venezuela reported that military intelligence officials from Delcy Rodríguez’s interim regime threatened to arrest him if he did not shut down his live broadcast from La Guaira, the city hardest hit by the June 24 earthquakes.

The allegation was reported on Thursday by the Just the News account on ‘X’, which shared a video recorded by journalist Oscar Ramírez while he was reporting from the rubble of a collapsed building at ground zero of the disaster. According to his account, no international media outlet had managed to gain access to that location before him.

“We have some hostility right now, we have the intelligence military from Venezuela trying to tell us that we need to turn off our transmission,” the correspondent said during a live broadcast. “They are telling us to go right now for security reasons because if not, we are going to be arrested.”

Ramírez noted that the pressure from the police was not limited to his team, an allegation that suggests state repression against the press is escalating. “They are now trying to be hostile to one of the local networks right now. They are trying to tell them to stop informing their reality,” he added, without identifying the station in question.

The correspondent insisted that, despite the order to withdraw, thousands of people remained trapped under the rubble at the time of the recording, and that the area lacked the necessary machinery and equipment to continue rescue efforts, despite the arrival of U.S. rescue workers and military personnel. Before cutting off the broadcast, he said apologetically: "If I weren't an American, I'd be arrested."

Ramírez is a renowned bilingual journalist originally from Tijuana, Mexico, according to his profile. He has extensive experience covering the southern border and conflict zones.

This complaint joins other reports of pressure against those who document or participate in relief efforts following the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela. Early Thursday, relatives and nongovernmental organizations reported the disappearance of Wilmer Antonio Cruz, known as “El Topo de La Guaira,” a volunteer rescue worker recognized for helping save at least 60 people and recovering more than a hundred bodies from the OPP buildings in Caraballeda, in La Guaira state.

Cruz had publicly denounced the lack of equipment and government support needed to continue search efforts. He was detained on the night of Wednesday, July 1, by officers of the Bolivarian National Police, and his whereabouts have been unknown ever since. Organizations such as Un Mundo Sin Mordaza and the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners demanded that Venezuelan authorities provide information on his whereabouts and held the state responsible for his physical safety.

So far, the regime of Delcy Rodríguez has not commented on the complaint filed by the Real America’s Voice correspondent or on Cruz’s whereabouts.