The three teenagers wept as Judge Keidimar Ramos Castillo laid out their only two options: plead guilty to terrorism and incitement and face six years in prison, or stand trial and risk a decade behind bars, where they have already been beaten, tortured, and deprived of food and medication.

This article was originally published in Review of Democracy on October 16, 2024 “Democracy is fragile. You have to fight for every law, every safeguard, every institution, every story. You must know how dangerous it is to suffer even the tiniest cut.

"The reactivation of the most violent mechanisms of the State's repressive apparatus led to serious human rights violations and crimes, in what constituted one of the country's most acute crises in recent years,