(Reuters) – Venezuela has released 99 people imprisoned following last year’s election protests, the country’s prison authority said on Thursday (26), but human rights groups said they believe the number is lower, despite Washington’s growing pressure on President Nicolás Maduro.
The United States has built up a huge military presence in the Caribbean, near the coast of Venezuela — which it alleges was transporting drugs — and seized two Venezuelan ships loaded with crude oil. US President Donald Trump stated that it would be smart for Maduro to leave power.
Hundreds of people in Venezuela’s capital Caracas and other parts of the South American country took to the streets after the July 2024 presidential election, banging pots and blocking roads, demanding that the opposition be declared the winner.
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At least 2,000 people were arrested as a result of the post-election violence, according to the government, whose attorney general announced, moments later, the release of several groups of detainees, including dozens of children under 18.
Venezuela’s electoral authority and the Federal Supreme Court declared that Maduro won the elections and that the protests aimed to undermine his victory for a third six-year term.
Late on Christmas Day, the Ministry of Penitentiary Services stated on social media that authorities ‘decided to evaluate each case individually and grant precautionary measures in accordance with the law, which led to the release of 99 citizens’.
The statement stated that the group had been detained ‘for their participation in acts of violence and incitement to hatred after Election Day 2024’.
The Committee for the Freedom of Social Activists, a local NGO, stated in X that this ‘number does not correspond to reality’.
The Penal Forum, another NGO, said it was only able to confirm the release of 45 people — 27 men, 15 women and three teenagers — who had been ‘arbitrarily detained for political reasons’.
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‘We continue to check other possible cases,’ he said.
Maduro’s government claims it does not have political prisoners, but rather ‘imprisoned politicians’ who seek to destabilize the country.
