The president in charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, proposed this Friday a general amnesty law to release political prisoners who have been detained from 1999 to the present, a period that covers the Chavismo governments.
“I want to announce that we have decided to promote a general amnesty law that covers the entire political period of political violence from 1999 to the present,” said Rodríguez at the ceremony to mark the beginning of the judicial year, at the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).
The Chavista leader commissioned the Judicial Revolution Commission and the Program for Coexistence and Peace to present the law to the National Assembly (AN, Parliament) in the “next few hours,” as well as “maximum collaboration” to the legislative body for its approval.
“Repair the wounds”
“Let it be a law that serves to repair the wounds left by political confrontation, from violence, from extremism, that serves to redirect justice in our country and that serves to redirect coexistence among Venezuelans,” he added.
The Chavista leader asked the country’s political prisoners, including those who have already received release measures, that “revenge, revenge or hatred not be imposed.”
Rodríguez indicated that this bill excludes those prosecuted or convicted of homicides, drug trafficking and human rights violations.
general amnesty
Several NGOs have insisted for years on a general amnesty for all political prisoners, presenting, at the same time, several legislative proposals. The last one was proposed last Tuesday by the Surgentes organization and the Mothers for Truth Committee.
The text of the NGO and the Committee included 12 articles and proposed amnesty for “all those people who have been persecuted, social activists, journalists, members of the victims’ committee, soldiers and people persecuted or deprived of their liberty in the context of post-electoral mobilizations.”
At the beginning of the month, a parliamentary faction in Venezuela also proposed an amnesty law to, they argued, bring “rest” to the relatives of people “who are unjustly detained.”
Machado says it is due to pressure from the US
The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado assured this Friday that the general amnesty law to free political prisoners proposed by the president in charge of that country, Delcy Rodríguez, is “a product of real pressure” from the United States and that she hopes it becomes a reality.
“Obviously it is not something that the regime has voluntarily wanted to do, but rather it is a product of the real pressure it has received from the Government of the United States. I hope this is the case and I hope that the 700, more than 700 prisoners who still remain in the torture centers in Venezuela can be with their families very soon,” he said when speaking at the talk ‘Let’s talk about Venezuela’, at the Hay festival in Cartagena de Indias.
NGOs clarify that it is not a “sorry”
Several Venezuelan NGOs clarified that the proposal for an amnesty is not a “forgiveness.” Provea, an organization dedicated to the defense of human rights, says that “the announcement of an amnesty should not be conceived, under any circumstances, as a pardon or measure of grace on the part of the State.”
“We remember that these people were arbitrarily imprisoned for exercising rights protected by international human rights instruments, the national Constitution and Venezuelan laws,” he indicated on his X account.
Feijóo celebrates the amnesty, although he regrets the lack of pressure from Spain
The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has celebrated the announcement, which he links to an “order from the United States” and which “should have” been adopted “a long time ago with pressure” that, in his opinion, “never came” from the Government of Spain.
Feijóo believes that the proposal of the president in charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, to carry out an amnesty from 1999 to the present is not born from “conviction”, but from an “order from the United States”, as stated this Saturday on the social network X.
“Venezuela is a better country without Maduro and Venezuela will be an even better country with Edmundo González and María Corina Machado. But as that moment arrives, we celebrate that the dictatorship is now doing by order of Washington what it should have done a long time ago with the pressure (that never came) from the Government of Spain,” maintains the opposition leader.
