Venezuela frees 99 prisoners held after election demos
Venezuela has released 99 people jailed after last year’s election protests, a prisons official said, amid U.S. pressure on President Nicolas Maduro.
The United States has amassed a massive military presence in the Caribbean, killing dozens of people in attacks on boats near the Venezuelan coast that it claims carry drugs and seizing two fully loaded Venezuelan crude tankers.
President Donald Trump said it would be wise for Maduro to leave power.
Hundreds of people took to the streets after the July 2024 presidential election in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, and other parts of the South American country, banging pots and pans and blocking roads, demanding that the opposition be declared the winner.
At least 2,000 people were arrested in the post-election violence, according to the government, whose chief prosecutor at the time announced the release of a large group of detainees, including dozens of detainees under the age of 18.
Venezuela’s electoral authority and the Supreme Court said Maduro won the election and that the protests were aimed at undermining his victory for a third six-year term.
The prison services ministry said on social media late on Christmas Day that authorities “decided to evaluate each case individually and take precautionary measures in accordance with the law, which led to the release of 99 citizens.”
It was stated that the group was detained “because of their participation in acts of violence and incitement of hatred after the 2024 election day.”
The Committee for the Freedom of Social Activists, a local NGO, said in X that these “numbers do not correspond to reality.”
Another NGO, Penal Forum, said they could confirm that only 45 people – 27 men, 15 women and three teenagers – who were “arbitrarily detained for political reasons” had been released.
“We continue to confirm other possible cases,” he said.
Maduro’s government says there are no political prisoners, but instead “imprisoned politicians” trying to destabilize the country.
In early December, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that repression of civil space in the country has intensified, suppressing people’s freedoms as journalists, activists, opposition figures and humanitarian workers face threats, harassment and arbitrary detentions.
