CARACAS, Jan 31 — Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez yesterday announced a proposed “amnesty law” for hundreds of prisoners in the country, and said the infamous Helicoide detention centre in the capital Caracas will be converted into a centre for sports and social services. “May it be a law that serves to heal the wounds left by political confrontation, violence, and extremism. May it serve to restore justice in our country and restore peaceful coexistence among Venezuelans,” Rodriguez said at an event at the Supreme Court of Justice. The proposed law could affect hundreds of detainees who remain behind bars in the South American country, as well as former prisoners who have already been conditionally released. The new law will cover cases running from 1999 until today, but will exclude those who may have participated in killings, serious abuses of human rights and drug trafficking, Rodriguez said.

Rights group Foro Penal welcomed the announcement “with optimism, but with caution” in a statement, adding it hopes the law will contribute to justice, freedom, peace and national reconciliation. The group said that current prisoner releases announced earlier this month should continue while the law is being approved. It has tallied 711 remaining political prisoners.

Families and rights advocates have long demanded that charges and convictions against detainees who are considered political prisoners be dropped. Opposition politicians, dissident members of the security services, journalists and rights activists are often subject to charges like terrorism and treason, which their families say are unjust and arbitrary.

The X social media account for the US embassy in Venezuela — closed since 2019 — said late yesterday that all US citizens held in the country had been released.

Infamous prison

Rodriguez also said that the Helicoide prison, a long-standing symbol of alleged government repression that rights groups have long denounced as the site of prisoner abuse, will instead be converted into a sports and social services centre.

In 2022, a United Nations report claimed that Venezuela’s state security agencies subjected detainees at the infamous prison, originally designed as a mall, to torture. The government rejected the UN’s findings. Relatives of prisoners at the Helicoide have held vigils and camped overnight outside the prison in recent weeks, demanding their relatives be freed.

Foro Penal says it has verified 303 political prisoners have been let go since the government announced a new series of releases on January 8.

Government officials — who deny holding political prisoners and say those jailed have committed crimes — have said more than 600 people have been released, but have not been clear about the timeline and appear to be including releases from previous years. The government has never provided an official list of how many prisoners will be released nor who they are.

Among the long-time advocates of releases and amnesty is Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has several close allies imprisoned.

Machado said the new amnesty law “isn’t something the regime wanted to do voluntarily, but is rather a product of the real pressure it has received from the United States government,” adding that hopefully the prisoners held can be reunited with their ⁠families very soon.

The recent releases were announced after the US captured President Nicolas Maduro on January 3 and brought him to New York for arraignment in court on narcoterrorism charges, which he denies. — Reuters