Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday pardoned more than 100 lawmakers and associates of Venezuelan National Assembly President and opposition leader Juan Guaido “in the interests of promoting national reconciliation,” the government said.
Guaido’s assistant Roberto Marrero and lawmakers Gilber Caro and Renzo Prieto were among the names read out by Venezueland Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez live on state television.
The three were released in Caracas on Monday night just hours after the announcement, opposition leaders said. Other detainees were also freed.
Photo: AFP
The presidential decree “comes into force from its publication” after which the courts “must implement immediate measures to liberate the persons mentioned,” Rodriguez said.
Marrero was arrested in March last year and accused of being part of a “terrorist cell” planning attacks to destabilize the Maduro government.
“Freedom is always welcome, whatever people might say,” he told media upon leaving intelligence service headquarters.
However, Guaido himself was not among those pardoned, despite several cases open against him.
He insisted that Maduro’s government was using the pardons “as trading pieces” to “legitimize a farce,” referring to upcoming legislative elections.
“It is a trap and we are not going to fall for it,” he wrote on Twitter, adding that “you cannot pardon those already innocent or who have immunity.”
The list of 110 people included lawmakers whose immunity had been lifted and people with outstanding judicial cases, including opposition lawmakers living in exile.
Opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara, who fled to the Chilean embassy in the capital, Caracas, in 2017 after leading anti-government protests that left 125 people dead, was among those pardoned.
The Supreme Court — which has been accused of pandering to the regime — ordered that he be denied the freedom to leave the country.
Also among the pardoned is Henry Ramos Allup, the head of the Democratic Action party, the oldest in Venezuela.
“Pardon or insult, Maduro is neither president, nor am I a criminal,” wrote Americo De Grazia, a lawmaker living in exile.
“If you [(Maduro] want to contribute to peace in Venezuela, pardon the country from the usurpation of power, quit the occupation that has resulted in a tragedy inflicted on our people and maybe then we’ll have something to thank you for,” he said.
The opposition considers Maduro a usurper over his 2018 re-election in a poll widely seen as fraudulent.
In January last year, Guaido launched a challenge to Maduro’s authority by declaring himself acting president, quickly receiving the backing of more than 50 countries.
The pardons announcement came a day after Maduro claimed to be supporting measures to bring “reconciliation” and “dialogue” to the deeply polarized South American country ahead of December legislative elections.
Guaido and leading opposition figures have already vowed to boycott those polls over a lack of transparency after the Supreme Court appointed election officials — a role that should have been conducted by the opposition-controlled legislature.
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