Caracas.- At least 17 political prisoners were released this Wednesday in Venezuela, reported the NGO Foro Penal, awaiting more releases amid the process announced on January 8 by the Venezuelan authorities for a “new political moment” in the country.
“Seventeen releases of political prisoners verified, so far, today. We hope more releases will occur”, said on X the president of the Foro Penal, Alfredo Romero, without offering further details.
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Relatives of political prisoners from El Rodeo prisons (Miranda state, near Caracas) told EFE that at least four were released from El Rodeo I and II. Until this morning, the Penal Forum counted 350 political prisoners released since the beginning of January, when the president of Parliament, the Chavista Jorge Rodríguez, announced the release of a “significant number” of people. Then, his sister and acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, indicated that the releases were part of a “new political moment”, a statement she made just days after the capture of Nicolás Maduro by the United States. However, the Government now speaks of the release process starting in November and, on Monday, the Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, who denies the existence of political prisoners in the country, put the total number of released at 895. Rodríguez also proposed last Friday an amnesty law – which must be approved by Parliament – to release political prisoners detained from 1999 to the present, a period that covers the governments of Chavismo. For the moment, the details of the bill proposed by Rodriguez are unknown. Foro Penal counts a total of 687 political prisoners in Venezuela, of which 600 are men and 87 are women, according to a count as of February 2nd. Of this group, 505 are civilians and 182 are military personnel, according to the bulletin.
