{"id":30043,"date":"2025-12-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/former-archbishop-of-caracas-prevented-from-leaving-the-country-6697\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T19:15:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:15:26","slug":"former-archbishop-of-caracas-prevented-from-leaving-the-country-6697","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/press\/former-archbishop-of-caracas-prevented-from-leaving-the-country-6697\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Archbishop of Caracas prevented from leaving the country"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo, the former Archbishop of Caracas and one of the most prominent figures in the Venezuelan Catholic Church, was prevented from leaving Venezuela for Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, on 10 December.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Bogot\u00e1, Cardinal Porras Cardozo was due to fly to Madrid, Spain, and onto Toledo to participate in a ceremony in which he would be appointed the role of Spiritual Protector in the Order of Saint Lazarus in Venezuela. Cardinal Porras Cardozo was accompanied by the Grand Prior of the Order, Jos\u00e9 Antonio Rodr\u00edguez, and his wife, who were permitted to board the plane, however the cardinal himself was prevented from boarding by officials who threatened to arrest him if he insisted on travelling abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cardinal reported<\/a> that in addition to being prevented from travelling, his passport was cancelled without official explanation. In addition, a statement<\/a> from the Order of Saint Lazarus reports that the cardinal subjected to a \u2018humiliating\u2019 treatment including a search of his personal belongings and clothes, the use of sniffer dogs, and the removal of his luggage from the plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The order has appealed to the Vatican to demand \u2018the immediate restitution of the confiscated documents and a guarantee of free international transit for His Eminence, in accordance with international norms.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cardinal Porras Cardozo has previously been subjected to harassment by the Venezuelan authorities. On 20 October 2025 President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro accused the cardinal of \u2018conspiring\u2019 during the canonisation process of Venezuelan physician Jos\u00e9 Gregorio Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a>, after he denounced the militarisation of Venezuela and the government\u2019s human rights violations whilst speaking in Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Days later, Cardinal Porras Cardozo was prevented from celebrating Mass in St. Gregorio Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s birthplace of Isnot\u00fa on 26 October after the Vice Minister of Religious Affairs contacted the Venezuelan Bishops\u2019 Conference and warned of a risk of unrest if the cardinal was permitted to attend. Cardinal Porras Cardozo subsequently attempted to travel to the town privately, however his aircraft was diverted under false pretences and a military deployment prevented him from continuing his journey by land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Venezuelan Bishops\u2019 Conference issued a public statement defending Cardinal Porras Cardozo on the same day, refuting President Maduro\u2019s accusations and emphasising the legitimacy of the cardinal\u2019s pastoral work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW advocacy\u4e3b\u4efb\u517c\u7f8e\u6d32\u56e2\u961f\u8d1f\u8d23\u4eba\u5b89\u5a1c\u00b7\u674e\u00b7\u65af\u5766\u683c\uff08Anna Lee Stangl\uff09\u8868\u793a\uff1a \u2018CSW is highly alarmed at the Venezuelan authorities\u2019 increasing efforts to restrict the freedom of movement of Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo, who has clearly been targeted because of his criticism of the government\u2019s violations of human rights. We echo the call of the Order of Saint Lazarus for the authorities to return and reinstate Cardinal Porras Cardozo\u2019s passport, and to permit him to travel freely to Bogot\u00e1.\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a separate development, unidentified individuals vandalised the Cuasia Church in San Juan de los Morros, Gu\u00e1rico State on 23 October. The assailants left graffiti with death threats towards the church\u2019s priest, Fr. Juan Manuel Le\u00f3n, who is known for denouncing human rights abuses in Venezuela. Messages such as \u2018Damn priest, we are going to kill you\u2019 and \u2018Terrorist, fascist, thief\u2019 were written just a few centimetres from the church\u2019s cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bishop of San Juan de los Morros, Monsignor Ra\u00fal Ascanio, confirmed that Fr. Manuel Le\u00f3n had received previous threats and described the incident as \u2018extremely serious\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anna Lee Stangl added: \u2018CSW calls on the authorities in San Juan de los Morros to conduct a detailed investigation into the vandalism of the Cuasia Church and the death threats issued towards Fr. Juan Manuel Le\u00f3n, ensuring that those responsible are held to account and that religious leaders in Venezuela are free to carry out their work without fear of violence or harassment.\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo, the former Archbishop of Caracas and one of the most prominent figures in the Venezuelan Catholic Church, was prevented from leaving Venezuela for Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, on 10 December.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":44179,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[137,144],"class_list":["post-30043","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-latin-america","regions-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/30043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/30043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40629,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/30043\/revisions\/40629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30043"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=30043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}