Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek Saab, said on Monday (23) that another 177 people arrested during the protests that took place after the country’s elections will be released, bringing the total number of prisoners released to 910.
One of the leading figures of Nicolás Maduro’s regime, Saab announced in recent weeks a series of releases of more than 2,000 people detained after participating in the protests that followed the presidential elections on July 28, amid allegations of fraud against the dictatorship. Among those arrested were 164 teenagers.
Human rights groups say they have only been able to verify part of those releases, and that at least three protesters have died in custody.
Also on Monday, former Spanish president Felipe González (1982-1996) asked the country’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to facilitate the return to Caracas of Edmundo González Urrutia, recognized as the legitimate Venezuelan president by several countries.
The former Spanish president, who is 82 years old, offered to accompany the Venezuelan on the trip. “If I had to make decisions, I would take him by plane, like we brought him,” he said. “I would take him by plane and I am willing to accompany him.”
Maduro “has become an arbitrary tyrant without democratic legitimacy” and, “although it may seem” otherwise, “tyrannies are not eternal”, added the former president. “Ask [Bashar] al-Assad”, he concluded, referring to the former dictator of Syria, whose regime was overthrown on the 8th.
Edmundo González left Venezuela for Spain, where he requested political asylum in September.
At the time, in an audio released by his advisors, he stated that he intended to continue fighting for the recovery of democracy and freedom for Venezuelans, even from afar.
The 75-year-old former diplomat has not appeared in public since July 30, when he participated in a demonstration against the regime.
