Génesis Carmona, a marketing student and Miss Tourism Carabobo, was 22 years old when she was shot in the head on 18 February 2014, while participating in a student demonstration in Valencia city, Carabobo state. Despite the medical assistance received, Carmona died on the following day. The case of Genesis Carmona continues unpunished. Her mother, María Eugenia Tovar, still hopes to get justice.
Génesis Carmona, a marketing student and Miss Tourism Carabobo, was 22 years old when she was shot in the head on 18 February 2014, while participating in a student demonstration in Valencia city, Carabobo state. Despite the medical assistance received, Carmona died on the following day.
Amnesty International gathered testimonies from Carmona’s family, who reported she had attended with her brother, her mother and classmates to a protest at the time of her death on Avenida Cedeño in Valencia city, Carabobo state. The march was taking place peacefully with a cord of the Bolivarian National Guard that preceded the demonstrators. At a certain point, the guards left to give way to a group of armed civilians on motorcycles that started firing at demonstrators. Most of the protesters would have thrown themselves on the ground to dodge the bullets, but Genesis would have run off in the opposite direction when a bullet reached her head.
Carmona was transferred to the Health Center Doctor Rafael Guerra Méndez in Valencia and she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. However, she did not resist and died on 19 February 2014 due to traumatic brain injury.
After the investigations carried out by the Public Prosecutor's Office in 2015, a person had been accused of complicity of intentional homicide for the death of Genesis, and an international arrest warrant was issued against another person, although no details have been given as to whether it would be the material author of the homicide or not.
Three years after Carmona's death, the case continues unpunished. Prosecutors National 44° and 146° of the Metropolitan Area of Caracas, ratified the accusation against the citizen Juan Masa Seijas for being an unnecessary accomplice to the crime of intentional homicide with treachery for vile reasons and association to commit a crime, to whom it was given a precautionary measure of periodical presentation.
Although the trial was ordered, the judicial process has not been finalized and the case of Genesis Carmona continues unpunished. Her mother, María Eugenia Tovar, still hopes to get justice.
