Venezuelan government releases 71 political prisoners

A total of 71 people arrested as part of protests against the 2024 presidential election in Venezuela have been held at liberty since dawn this July, Christmas Day, according to information from the Committee of Mothers for Defense of the Truth. Amid escalating tensions with the United States, this would be the largest release of political prisoners that Nicolas Maduro’s regime has seen in several months. Maduro’s latest pardon against opposition activists took place on August 13, when 13 political prisoners were released from prison with alternative legal measures.

The collective details in a press release that 65 men were excarcerated in the prison known as Tocorón, in the state of Aragua (north), as well as three women from the Centro Penitenciario Femenino La Crisálida, in Miranda (north), and three adolescents in La Guaira (north). The committee celebrated the excarcerations, although it considers them an “insufficient” achievement, which is why it demanded the “total release” of all those detained after the elections in July last year, through a general amnesty.

The excarcerations of these jueves were also confirmed in X by the NGO Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners, made up of family members of the detainees. In a long message, the collective published a list of the names of the newly released, none of them being known leaders or activists. “Every name that comes off the lists of unjust imprisonment represents a victory for truth and hope. We demand freedom for all those still detained for political reasons in Venezuela. We continue for all,” says the NGO’s message.

In the first hour of the afternoon, there was still no information about the rest of those excarcerated. It is since the mayor was arrested for participating in the protests that took place in Venezuela in August 2024, which led to the presidential elections in which Maduro was re-elected and where the opposition and international organizations denounced fraud and proclaimed the triumph of Edmundo González as president. González now lives in exile in Spain, and Venezuela’s main opposition leader, María Corina Machado, abandoned her refuge in Caracas to receive the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.

In the context of protests against electoral fraud, more than 2,400 people were arrested – most of them excarcerated – and accused of being “terrorists”, according to the Fiscalía, even several NGOs and opposition parties defended them as innocent and assured that they were political prisoners. Maduro’s executive assures for its part that the country is “free of political prisoners” and that these señalados as such are incarcerated by the “comisión de terrible hechos punishables”.

The NGO Justicia Encuentro y Perdón recognizes the positive impact of the measure, but affirms that it is “clearly insufficient compared to the 1,085 people deprived of their liberty for political reasons who appear in our archives”. The civil association affirms that “the partial release of people arbitrarily detained does not correct the underlying illegality. More than a thousand people remain in prison unjustifiably.”

In these weeks, the country’s political police have strengthened their procedures against dissent, sending more opponents to prison as US harassment intensifies on Venezuela’s shores. The latest arrests included political scientist Nicmer Evans; union leaders José Elías Torres and William Lizardo; and political activist Melquíades Pulido.

Last week, in a case that had a great impact on public opinion, the teenager Gabriel Rodríguez, student and minor, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for “terrorism”, for his participation in the popular demonstrations of August last year. The NGO Foro Penal estimates, for its part, that there are just over 800 political prisoners in the country.

“Injustice continues to affect hundreds of families across the country,” said the collective, made up of family members of those arrested after these protests. Last October, the mothers of the detainees indicated that the excarcelaciones procedure had remained suspended since March, which is why they then requested a review of their children’s cases. The excarcerations of these jueves were also confirmed in X by the NGO Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners, made up of family members of the detainees.