Lourdes Coromoto Villarreal García is a Venezuelan teacher, labor union leader, and human rights activist. On the morning of May 22, 2025, as she was leaving her home in the La Pastora parish of Caracas with her daughter, she was intercepted by unidentified men who forced her into a vehicle and took her away without identifying themselves or presenting a warrant. Her family was left without information regarding her whereabouts, prompting human rights organizations to denounce her case as an enforced disappearance. Prior to her detention, Lourdes had publicly defended the labor rights of teachers, demanded better working conditions and salaries, and participated in campaigns calling for the release of political prisoners. She had also supported calls made by sectors of the democratic opposition ahead of the May 2025 elections. Human rights organizations denounced her detention as politically motivated and demanded her immediate release, emphasizing that her activism and the exercise of her fundamental freedoms should never have been criminalized. Following months of arbitrary detention, Lourdes was released, but her case remains emblematic of the persecution against teachers, union leaders, and civil society activists in Venezuela.
