Alcedo Mora Márquez is a political and social activist and leader who worked in the governorship of the Merida state, Western Venezuela. After denouncing an act of corruption in which officials from Miranda state would be involved, Mora Márquez disappeared on 27 February 2015. Almost three years after the beginning of the investigations, Mora's relatives denounce there has not been a sufficient and effective response from the authorities. Mora is still missing.
Since August 2013, Alcedo Mora worked as General Secretary of Governance in Mérida state’s Governorship, in western Venezuela. In addition, he is a political and social leader, known for spreading his opinions through several media, in which he criticised the government’s policies and urged the population to organise to defend their rights. In the context of his activism, he had denounced the existence of a gas smuggling network, allegedly involving officials of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) -a state company responsible for the exploitation, production and trading of Venezuelan oil- and officials of Mérida state.
On 27 February 2015, during morning hours, Mora left home to go to work. According to the testimony of relatives in reports, it was the last time they saw him alive. Along with Alcedo Mora, the disappearance of the brothers Jesús Esneider Vergel Prado, Eliezer Vergel Prado -friends of Mora- were reported.
On 5 March, Mora's children filed a complaint on the forced disappearance of their father before the Mérida’s Criminal Scientific and Criminal Investigations Body (CICPC, acronym in Spanish), and on 8 March, formalized the complaint before the Public Ministry.
On 13 May, Mora's children filed a writ of habeas corpus before the Public Ministry.
On 18 May 2015, the judge in charge considered it was a case of forced disappearance and decided to continue with the investigations.
On 26 June 2016, given the delay in the investigation of the facts and ineffective results, Alcedo Mora’s children, with the assistance of the Venezuelan Program of Education-Action in Human Rights (Provea), filed the case before the UN Human Rights Committee.
Relatives have publicly stated that, until November 2017, 32 months after the disappearance of Mora, there has been no response from the authorities to determine what had happened.
As of 27 February 2018, Alcedo Mora and the Vergel brothers are still missing. The Public Ministry has not given any more information on the results of the proceedings and no person has been detained as alleged responsible for the disappearance.
