The Nicolás Maduro regime has released from prison during the early hours of this Thursday, in the middle of Christmas, 71 political prisoners detained in the protests that occurred after the elections, as confirmed by several human rights organizations. These same NGOs have questioned the scope of the measure and have demanded that the Venezuelan Government release all people who remain in prison for political reasons.
He Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners (CLPP) has detailed in a statement released through social networks that at least 60 people have left the Tocorón prisonin the state of Aragua. Added to them are 6 women detained in the Las Crisálidas center, in Miranda, and 3 adolescents detained in La Guaira. The NGO has valued each of the releases although it has stressed that the underlying problem remains unsolved: “Each name that comes off the lists of unjust imprisonment represents a victory for truth and hope,” it states before demanding “freedom for all those who are still detained for political reasons in Venezuela.”
The organization has expressed itself in similar terms Justice, Encounter and Forgiveness (JEP), which places the number of those released between 63 and 75 people, although it has also warned that the figure is “clearly insufficient” when compared to the registry of political prisoners they manage: about 1,085 people. “More than 1,000 people continue to be deprived of liberty unjustifiably,” said the NGO, which insists that all these releases do not correct “the underlying illegality.”
The organization has also highlighted the “selective and discretionary nature” of the releases, which they consider confirms that deprivation of liberty “has been used as an instrument of political persecution” in Venezuela. “We recognize the human value of each release and the relief it represents for people and their families, especially on a date like Christmas. However, from a human rights perspective, freedom cannot be granted as a prerogative, but rather guaranteed as a right, and must be restored to all people arbitrarily deprived of it,” he concluded.
The Committee of Mothers in Defense of the Truth, made up of relatives of people detained after the elections, has also confirmed the release of 71 people, including three women and three teenagers, although it has described the measure as insufficient. “Injustice continues to affect hundreds of families throughout the country,” denounced the group, which has once again demanded a general amnesty for all people detained after the presidential elections.
Other organizations have combined relief with denunciation. Peace Laboratory has valued the releases as “good news,” but has reiterated that it will continue to demand that “all” political prisoners be released. The general coordinator of Provea, Óscar Murillo, has spoken of “collective relief”, although he has regretted the lack of transparency in the process. “As on previous occasions, the information is opaque,” he noted, before criticizing the continued detention of human rights defenders such as Rocío San Miguel, Javier Tarazona, Kennedy Tejada, Carlos Julio Rojas and Eduardo Torres.
From the opposition, the former governor of the state of Táchira César Pérez Vivas has demanded the release of political activists such as Biagio Pilieri, Henry Alviárez, Perkins Rocha or Freddy Superlano, and has demanded in his X account “to stop the authoritarian escalation with its revolving door”, in reference to the practice of releasing a group of detainees while new arrests are made.
According to Foro Penal, 902 people currently remain imprisoned for political reasons in Venezuela and 62 remain in a situation of forced disappearance, according to its latest balance sheet, with a cut-off date of December 15. The Government, for its part, maintains that the country is “free of political prisoners” and affirms that those detained are for the “commission of terrible punishable acts.”
This Thursday’s releases resume a process that has been suspended since March, according to the inmates’ relatives. The Prosecutor’s Office assures that, since the beginning of the release program last year, some 2,000 people have been released from prison under precautionary measures. For NGOs, this data does not alter the diagnosis: as long as freedom is not guaranteed as a right and not as a concession, political repression will continue to mark the pulse of post-electoral Venezuela.
The releases have occurred in a context of high political tension, marked by the open crisis after the presidential elections of July 28 and by the increase in international pressure on the Venezuelan Executive. In this scenario, the Government of Nicolás Maduro has denounced United States military movements in the Caribbean as part of an alleged strategy to force a change of power in the country.
