Venezuelan Ombudsman's Son Criticizes His Father in Video Statement

The son of Venezuela’s ombudsman on April 26 condemned what he described as “brutal repression by the country’s security forces” amid ongoing anti-government protests, and called on his father to end “the injustice that has drowned Venezuela.”

Yibram Saab Fornino, the eldest son of ombudsman Tarek William Saab, addressed his father directly in a video statement shared on YouTube, saying: “I’m asking you as a son and in the name of Venezuela, which you serve, to reflect and do what you have to do.”

He shared the video after a 20-year-old student, Juan Pablo Pernalete, was killed after he was struck by a tear-gas canister during a protest. “That could’ve been me,” Yibram Saab said. At least 26 people have been killed during protests in recent months, according to reports.

The video statement gained traction among opposition leaders and activists on social media, and had garnered close to a million views by the afternoon of April 27. Credit: Yibram Saab Fornino via Storyful