Winston Teams Up With Accenture to Secure Asylum for Venezuelan Freedom Fighter

Winston & Strawn joined forces with our client Accenture to help a pro bono client obtain political asylum in the United States and freedom from the surveillance, violence, and unlawful detention inflicted upon her by the Venezuelan government of authoritarian dictator Nicolás Maduro.

In 2013, Nicolás Maduro was elected as President of Venezuela and two years later seized full control of the country—completing Venezuela’s decades-long transformation from a democracy into an authoritarian regime. As Maduro concentrated power, resources in Venezuela became scarce and disposable income nonexistent. As a result, our client was forced to close her once-successful esthetician business.

She then became politically active, opposing Maduro’s government and supporting opposition candidates but she was severely persecuted for doing so. During an election day protest in 2017, Venezuelan police officers brutally beat her with a baton. Two of her neighbors were shot during that protest. Despite this, she continued to advocate for democracy.

In 2021, Venezuelan counterintelligence agents served her with a summons to testify against the opposition party and threatened to imprison her if she didn’t. Aware of the dangerous conditions in Venezuelan prisons, she knew she had to flee the country. Ten days later, she said goodbye to her husband and fled to the United States, where she filed for political asylum. 

The Winston team members who secured this important win for our client include attorneys Christopher Essig, Amelia Garza-Mattia, Claire Reitan, and Christina Zaldivar, and paralegal Laurence Legall. The Accenture team members include Lily Dobson and Maria Maras.

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