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Venezuela’s acting president has announced a potentially historic amnesty bill that opens a path to the release of hundreds of political prisoners in the repressive South American country.
The proposed law would cover “the entire period of political violence since 1999 to the present”, Delcy Rodríguez said in a televised speech from the country’s Supreme Court.
That period would cover the era of the revolutionary socialist Chavista government, including the presidencies of the late Hugo Chávez — from which the movement takes its name — and his successor, Nicolás Maduro, who was captured with his wife, Cilia Flores, by US special forces on January 3. The couple are in New York facing charges of drug trafficking, which they have denied.
The announcement of an amnesty law represents a big political opening in Venezuela, where activists, journalists and opposition figures have long been targeted by authorities. The rate of arrests surged during Maduro’s 13-year tenure as the country was wracked by a deepening economic and humanitarian crisis.
“May it be a law that helps heal the wounds left by political confrontation, by violence and by extremism, and that helps put justice on the right path in our country and that fosters coexistence among Venezuelan men and women,” Rodríguez said.
According to statements by government figures, about 800 prisoners have been released since Maduro’s arrest, though rights groups say that the number they have been able to verify is closer to 300. According to Foro Penal, a Caracas-based watchdog, there were 711 political prisoners in the country on January 28.
Alfredo Romero, the director of Foro Penal, voiced cautious optimism about the proposal.
“A general amnesty is welcome as long as its elements and conditions include all of civil society, without discrimination, and do not turn it into a cloak of impunity, while contributing to the dismantling of the repressive apparatus of political persecution,” Romero said in a post on X on Friday night.
Shortly before Rodríguez’s announcement, the US embassy in Caracas announced that “all known US citizens” held in Venezuela had been released. It is unknown exactly how many Americans had been detained, with observers estimating the number to be about five.
Rodríguez also announced that El Helicoide, an unfinished shopping mall that was used as a notorious prison under Maduro, would be closed and repurposed into a “a social, sports, cultural and commercial centre”.
Outside the complex on Friday night, family members of detainees celebrated Rodríguez’s announcement.
“To those who have benefited from measures and have been released, I ask, in the name of the Venezuelan people, that they do not impose vengeance, retaliation or hatred,” Rodríguez said. “You are being given an opportunity to live in peace and tranquillity in Venezuela.”
Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice-president who the Trump administration has backed to open up the country’s oil sector, said the proposed law would be sent to the National Assembly, which is led by Rodríguez’s brother Jorge. The government’s coalition has a healthy majority.
On Thursday, Venezuela approved a new hydrocarbons law, effectively ending the state’s dominance in the oil sector, in a reversal of a quarter-century of nationalistic oil policies. At the same time, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a “general licence” allowing American groups to purchase and resell Venezuelan crude.
María Corina Machado, the opposition’s main leader and recipient of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, said the amnesty law was the result of US pressure.
“When repression disappears and fear is lost, it is the end of tyranny,” Machado, who has been out of the country since December, said in an appearance at a literary festival on Friday night.
“This is not something the regime has done voluntarily; rather, it is a response to pressure from the US government and hopefully the prisoners will soon be reunited with their families.”
Additional reporting by Ana Rodríguez Brazón in Caracas
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