Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons.
The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition.
It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
Photo: Efrain Gonzalez, AFP, Venezuelan Presidency
Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency.
Rodriguez also announced the shutdown of Helicoide, a prison in Caracas where torture and other human rights abuses have been repeatedly documented by independent organizations.
The facility would be transformed into a sports, social and cultural center for police and surrounding neighborhoods, she said.
The Venezuelan-based prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal estimated that 711 people are in detention facilities across the South American country for their political activities. Of those, 183 have been sentenced.
The government did not release the text of the bill, leaving unclear the specific criteria that would be used to determine who qualifies for amnesty.
The “general amnesty law” would cover the “entire period of political violence from 1999 to the present,” Rodriguez said, adding that people convicted of murder, drug trafficking, corruption or human rights violations would not qualify for relief.
Rodriguez’s government earlier this month announced plans to release a significant number of prisoners in a goodwill gesture, but relatives of those detained have condemned the slow pace of the releases.
“A general amnesty is welcome as long as its elements and conditions include all of civil society, without discrimination, that it does not become a cloak of impunity, and that it contributes to dismantling the repressive apparatus of political persecution,” Foro Penal president Alfredo Romero said.
The organization has tallied 302 releases since the Jan. 8 announcement.
The human rights group Provea in a statement called out the lack of transparency and “trickle” pace of prisoner releases.
While the freeing of those still detained “is urgent, the announcement of an amnesty should not be conceived, under any circumstances, as a pardon or act of clemency on the part of the State,” it said.
“We recall that these people were arbitrarily imprisoned for exercising rights protected by international human rights instruments, the National Constitution and Venezuelan laws,” Provea said.
Outside another detention facility in Caracas, Edward Ocariz, who was detained for more than five months after the 2024 election, joined prisoners’ relatives in demanding their loved ones’ swift release.
“We, Venezuelans, have all endured so much, all unjust, merciless and trampling on our dignity. No one deserves this,” Ocariz said. “And today, the guilty continue to govern Venezuela.”
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