Venezuela’s government on Sunday released from prison several distinguished opposition members, including certainly one of the closest allies of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, after lengthy politically motivated detentions.
Their releases come as the federal government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez faces mounting pressure to free lots of of individuals whose detentions months or years ago have been linked to their political opinions. Additionally they follow a visit to Venezuela of representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“Today, we’re being released,” Juan Pablo Guanipa, a Machado ally and former governor, said in a video posted on X. “Much to debate in regards to the present and way forward for Venezuela, at all times with the reality on the forefront.”
Guanipa, who spent greater than eight months in custody, was released from a detention facility within the capital, Caracas. An armored vehicle and officers appeared behind him within the video he released.
Venezuelan-based prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal confirmed the discharge of a minimum of 30 people on Sunday.
Along with Guanipa, Machado’s political organization said several of its members were among the many released, including Maria Oropeza, who livestreamed her arrest by military intelligence officers as they broke into her home with a crowbar. Machado’s attorney, Perkins Rocha, was also freed.
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“Let’s go for the liberty of Venezuela!” Machado posted on X.
Guanipa was detained in late May and accused by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello of participating in an alleged “terrorist group” plotting to boycott that month’s legislative election. Guanipa’s brother Tomás rejected the accusation, and said that the arrest was meant to crack down on dissent.
“Pondering in another way can’t be criminalized in Venezuela, and today, Juan Pablo Guanipa is a prisoner of conscience of this regime,” Tomás Guanipa said after the arrest. “He has the correct to think as he thinks, the correct to defend his ideas, and the correct to be treated under a structure that is just not being enforced today.”
Rodríguez was sworn in as Venezuela’s acting president after the capture in Caracas of then-President Nicolás Maduro by the U.S. military last month.
Her government announced on Jan. 8 it could free a big variety of prisoners — a central demand of the country’s opposition and human rights organizations with backing from the USA — but families and rights watchdogs have criticized authorities for the slow pace of the releases.
The ruling party-controlled National Assembly this week began debating an amnesty bill that could lead on to the discharge of lots of of prisoners. The opposition and nongovernmental organizations have reacted with cautious optimism in addition to with suggestions and demands for more information on the contents of the proposal.
National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez on Friday posted a video on Instagram showing him outside a jail in Caracas and saying that “everyone” can be released no later than next week, once the amnesty bill is approved.
Delcy Rodríguez and Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, spoke by phone in late January. His spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, in a press release said he “offered our support to assist Venezuela work on a roadmap for dialogue and reconciliation during which human rights ought to be on the centre” after which “deployed a team” to the South American country.
—Associated Press author Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.
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