Anxious Venezuelans seek clarity on new amnesty law

Venezuela's National Assembly unanimously adopted the law Thursday, providing hope that hundreds of political prisoners behind bars may be soon released.

But it was unclear how quickly or what process would be used to implement the law.

Opposition figures have criticized the legislation, which appears to include carveouts for some offenses previously used by authorities to target Maduro's political opponents.

It explicitly does not apply to those prosecuted for "promoting" or "facilitating... armed or forceful actions" against Venezuela's sovereignty by foreign actors.

In a recent interview, interim president Delcy Rodriguez leveled such an accusation against opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who hopes to return to Venezuela at some point from the United States.

"One must know how to ask for forgiveness and one must also know how to receive forgiveness," Rodriguez said after signing the bill into law late Thursday.

The law also excludes members of the security forces convicted of "terrorism"-related activities.

"Many of us are aware that the amnesty law does not cover our relatives," Hiowanka Avila, 39, told AFP outside the Rodeo 1 prison near Caracas, where many of the detainees are ex-soldiers or officers.

Her brother Henryberth Rivas, 30, was arrested in 2018 for allegedly taking part in an assassination attempt against Maduro using armed drones.

Many relatives of prisoners across Venezuela have waited outside jails for weeks for the potential release of their loved ones.

Hundreds have already been granted conditional release by Rodriguez's government since the deadly US raid that seized Maduro, but the Foro Penal NGO says some 650 remain detained.

Foro Penal director Alfredo Romero said Friday that receiving "amnesty is not automatic," but would require a process in the courts, viewed by many as an arm of Maduro's repression.

Outside the Caracas jail known as Zone 7, Narwin Gil demanded "action, not words."

She had joined a hunger strike starting on February 14 demanding the quick passage of the amnesty bill, which faced repeated delays since Rodriguez proposed it late last month.

"We are waiting for those actions, and for them to happen as soon as possible, because we need to go home," Gil said.
'Completely free'
Opposition politician Juan Pablo Guanipa, a Machado ally, announced his release from detention shortly after the bill was passed.

He had recently been freed from prison but then quickly re-detained and kept under house arrest.

"After 10 months in hiding and almost nine months of unjust imprisonment, I confirm that I am now completely free," Guanipa wrote on social media.

He called for all other political prisoners to be freed and exiles to be allowed to return.

On Friday, he rallied with supporters in his hometown of Maracaibo, Venezuela's second city.

The legislation has also faced criticism from rights groups over its potential use to excuse abuses under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez.

Exiled Venezuelan opposition figurehead Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia on Friday said there would be "no lasting reconciliation without memory or responsibility" in his country.

"A responsible amnesty is the transition from fear to the rule of law. It is the pledge that power will not be exercised again without limits and that the law will be above force," Gonzalez Urrutia wrote on X.

Exiled in Spain, Gonzalez Urrutia is widely considered the rightful victor of 2024 presidential elections marred by fraud allegations in which Maduro was declared the winner.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Venezuelans have been jailed in recent years over plots, real or imagined, to overthrow the government of Maduro, who was in the end seized in the deadly US raid on January 3 and taken to New York.

Rodriguez was formerly Maduro's vice president and took his place as the South American country's leader with the consent of US President Donald Trump -- provided that she toe Washington's line.

The United States has taken over control of Venezuela's oil sales, with Trump vowing a share for Washington in the profits.