CARACAS (EFE).— The amnesty in Venezuela advances in dribs and drabs and with the uncertainty of relatives of political prisoners who have gone to court to request the application of the rule that, far from being an immediate grace measure, goes through an institutional filter coordinated, in principle, by the Prosecutor’s Office, public defenders and judges within a period of no more than 15 days.
It is in full development and the Prosecutor’s Office He claims that about 3,000 people have benefited. The National Assembly, meanwhile, points out that about 3,000 people with precautionary measures have received full freedom and 179 have been released.
However, NGOs and political parties They maintain that they have managed to confirm the release from prison of at least 109 political prisoners and, however, they have not offered information about people with restricted freedoms.
The measure promoted by the President Delcy Rodríguez, within the framework of what she herself has called a “new political moment” which occurs just after the United States pressed for the release of these detainees after capture President Nicolás Maduro, progresses as follows:
Bureaucracy.— The law establishes that those detained or required by justice who want to be amnestied must present a request to the courts and, until now, the Prosecutor’s Office and public defenders have been in charge of making these requests.
“The theory says that it should be declared ex officio because the provisions of the law are of public order and general interest, but what we are seeing is that (…) it is not a truly automatic process, although it should be,” the vice-president director of the NGO Foro Penal, Gonzalo Himiob, told EFE.
Foro Penal has also questioned that the same judges who handed down sentences are the ones who decide on releases.
Selectivity.- The law specifies its application to 13 episodes between 1999 and 2026, which excludes the rest of the period, as well as cases related to military operations, or that have promoted military operations against the country. According to Foro Penal, of the 600 political prisoners, more than 180 are from the army.
The law also excludes the crimes of violation of human rights, crimes against humanity, war, drug trafficking, corruption and intentional homicide; The NGO affirms that the latter has been accused in certain cases of arrests during protests.
NGOs such as Provea, Foro Penal y Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón have agreed that there is an “unjustifiable excess of exclusions” with this legal framework.
Monitoring commission.— The law, however, allowed the creation of a special commission that is responsible for ensuring compliance with the amnesty and that can evaluate the request for cases not specified in the law and to do so can count on the support of experts. This, Himiob explains, opens the door to the possibility of “expanding the amnesty framework,” although the protocol for this is not clear.
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