10 Years in Prison for Selling a T-Shirt of a Hugo Chávez Statue Getting Smashed
Two Venezuelan women were convicted of incitement to hatred, treason, and terrorism.

Génesis Gabriela Pabón Paredes, 27, and Rocío Del Mar Rodríguez Guillen, 24, of Mérida, Venezuela, were each sentenced to 10 years in prison for printing a T-shirt with an image of a demonstrator destroying a statue of Hugo Chávez, the deceased socialist president responsible for Venezuela's economic and democratic collapse. The Argentinian news site Infobae first reported the story.
The incident occurred about a month after the two women launched their small T-shirt printing business. Pabón, who holds a technical degree in radiology, and Rodríguez, who studied business administration, received what seemed like a routine order via WhatsApp to make a T-shirt featuring the image.

At first, they didn't accept the order, but the customer was insistent, and after multiple requests, he said that the matter was urgent and sent them $45 as an advance payment.
Rodríguez later said that accepting the order was "foolish" and that they did so only because they needed "a little money to pay our debts."
On August 16, 2024, they were arrested while delivering the order. Authorities later confiscated their equipment, including two printers, approximately 90 blank T-shirts, a laptop, a notebook, nine containers of serigraphy paint, a press, and various samples.
The women were convicted of incitement to hatred, treason, and terrorism.
Since her arrest, Pabón has reportedly suffered from health issues, including convulsions.
Roughly two months after the arrest, 12 of the police officers involved in the investigation were themselves taken into custody in a separate case, and those officers now face charges, including treason and conspiracy.
The image on the t-shirt depicts Jobani José Romero Nava smashing a Chávez statue with a hammer, an image that quickly became a political symbol. (Romero was arrested in late July 2024.)
After Nicolás Maduro stole the Venezuelan presidential election on July 28, 2024, protesters flooded the streets demanding justice, and demonstrators destroyed statues of Hugo Chávez across the country.
The case of Pabón and Rodríguez is part of a broader crackdown on dissent. As of July 21, 2025, the Maduro regime has 853 political prisoners in custody, according to the nongovernmental organization Foro Penal. Over a 72-hour period in July, at least 20 opposition members and electoral witnesses were detained, which the opposition leader María Corina Machado denounced as a "brutal wave of repression."
Since 2014, over 18,000 people have been detained for political reasons in Venezuela. Over 9,000 individuals remain under restrictive measures, including those subject to court summons or travel bans. Forty-six individuals are currently listed as forcibly disappeared.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan entrepreneurs living outside the country are selling T-shirts with the iconic image of Romero smashing the Chávez statue without fear.
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sucks. Caracas was a beautiful place to visit once. the senoritas should have left Venezuela if protest capitalism is their gig
>>Venezuelan entrepreneurs living outside the country are selling T-shirts with the iconic image of Romero smashing the Chávez statue without fear.
a fearful Romero smashing the statute would be strange
Venezuelan entrepreneurs (living outside the country) are selling (T-shirts with the iconic image of Romero smashing the Chávez statue) without fear.
Venezuelan entrepreneurs living outside the country are selling without fear T-shirts with the iconic image of Romero smashing the Chávez statue.
exactly why the ladies should have vamoosed first.
Was Ray Epps helping to sell these shirts at local markets?
Only the fabric of time will tell us.
Madeleine L'Engel on line 2 ...
It's really Ava DuVernay and the call is coming from inside the house!
I remember going quickly from "hey they're finally making Wrinkle in Time!" to "oh ..."
Everyone who wanted to buy them was spending ten years in prison for ‘parading’.
Seems like a couple thousand political prisoners were held for a few years by the Biden regime but Reason still hasn't noticed.
Less local than Mackey I guess.
Two Venezuelan women were convicted of incitement to hatred, treason, and terrorism.
What's the libertarian takeaway here? Don't reluctantly and strategically support Marxists?
Government sucks.
Well if the cops had just shot them in the face they'd have gotten medals and early retirement. That's the kind of justice we've come to expect here in libertopia.
The NAP does not apply to government.
Yes Libertarians support Marxists like Maduro and Fascists like Trump. They even love high taxes as long as it is Trump is the one imposing them.
Venezuelan entrepreneurs living outside the country are selling T-shirts with the iconic image of Romero smashing the Chávez statue without fear.
Just so long as they're living outside the country legally. If they're not, and they're in America, then send ICE to round them up and ship 'em right back to Venezuela.
To be shot by Maduro. Every Venezuelan has a legitimate asylum claim today, even the ones who entered illegally. That make them legal.
Maduro does not take them back willingly. They'd be sent to CECOT.
No, it actually does NOT make them legal. And, so sorry to the asylum seekers - take it up with the millions upon millions of boys who cried wolf. Or lobo. Or dhe’b.
If you came here legally, great - you're in. If you're not, buh bye.
Goddamn you're a racist and ignorant fuck bird. Here's hoping you are one of those legals "accidentally" caught up in those prolific ICE raids and sent to Venezuela for first-hand perspective. 'Cause you're so intellectually bankrupt the only way you'll learn anything is through experience.
"anyone who disagrees with me is a racist!"
*drink*
Stop with the tropes, TAD.
Here's hoping you are one of those legals "accidentally" caught up in those prolific ICE raids and sent to Venezuela for first-hand perspective
Well I fail to see how that might happen because, like any legitimate American citizen, I can easily prove my identity for instant confirmation.
What, you can't do that?
I dont live in America but sometimes I leave my house and walk around in public without official proof of my identity
Cant do that in America i see ( makes note )
Can you easily point to it, in absence of physical verification? Something they can, y'know, call into their radiomachines and feed into their computermajigs and verify right then and there?
Why not? I do it all the time. While living in SW Arizona in a part of the state that is about 50 percent Mexican-American.
Sarc... how is stating a legal status racist?
And why do you and your team keep making ip fake stories to make an argument? I know you're not learned or intelligent enough to make an actual intelligent argument, but who do you think making shit up works on besides the other retards on your team?
How many legals have been caught up? You got numbers or just Bluesky rumors?
This is obviously fake news. Trump claims that Venezuela is safe to send asylum applicants back to. And Trump is always right on everything.
Sending Venezuelan citizens back to Venezuela seems nuts?
They do not belong here. They belong, you know, home.
I got 10 years in a Venezuelan prison for selling t-shirts and all I got was this lousy t-shirt
Don't try to clothe them in pity. It doesn't fit.
The assertion that somehow every Venezuelan can now have a legal status in the US is cut from whole cloth.
They seem to think it's all sewn up and buttoned, but they don't realize that it's all in tatters.
Hope this isn’t a “one size fits all” verdict.
They have to know it's not. The more they try and wash it, the more their position will shrink.
Perhaps their defense should have focused on them just messing around where their design was off the cuff. Regardless, they for collared.
Yea, but according to Cesar this is tearing apart the fabric of society.
"10 Years in Prison for Selling a T-Shirt of a Hugo Chávez Statue Getting Smashed. Two Venezuelan women were convicted of incitement to hatred, treason, and terrorism.
Well, yeah, that's what communist dictators do when their feelings get hurt.
Remember, these are the courts we are supposed to respect when they try an American in absentia for a crime committed on a different continent.