Venezuela’s government on Sunday released several prominent members of the opposition from prison, including one of the closest allies of Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, after lengthy politically motivated detentions.
Their releases come as the government of interim President Delcy Rodríguez faces growing pressure to release hundreds of people whose detentions months or years ago have been linked to their political beliefs. They also follow a visit to Venezuela by representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“Today they free us,” said Juan Pablo Guanipa, an ally of Machado and former governor, in a video published on X. “There is a lot to discuss about the present and future of Venezuela, always with the truth at the forefront.”
Guanipa, who spent more than eight months in custody, was released from a detention center in the capital, Caracas. An armored vehicle and officers appeared behind him in the video he posted.
Venezuela-based prisoner rights group Foro Penal confirmed the release of at least 30 people on Sunday.
In addition to Guanipa, Machado’s political organization said several of its members were among those released, including María Oropeza, who livestreamed her arrest by military intelligence agents when they broke into her home with a crowbar. Machado’s lawyer, Perkins Rocha, was also released.
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“Let’s go for the freedom of Venezuela!” Machado published in X.
Guanipa was arrested at the end of May and accused by the Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, of participating in an alleged “terrorist group” that was plotting to boycott the legislative elections that month. Guanipa’s brother Tomás rejected the accusation and said the arrest was aimed at suppressing dissent.
“Thinking differently cannot be criminalized in Venezuela and today Juan Pablo Guanipa is a prisoner of conscience of this regime,” said Tomás Guanipa after the arrest. “You have the right to think as you think, the right to defend your ideas and the right to be treated under a constitution that does not apply today.”
Rodríguez was sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president after the capture of then-President Nicolás Maduro by the US military in Caracas last month.
His government announced on Jan. 8 that it would release a significant number of prisoners, a central demand of the country’s opposition and U.S.-backed human rights organizations, but families and rights advocates have criticized authorities for the slow pace of releases.
The National Assembly, controlled by the ruling party, this week began debating an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners. The opposition and non-governmental organizations have reacted with cautious optimism, as well as suggestions and demands for more information about the content of the proposal.
The president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, posted a video on Instagram on Friday showing him outside a detention center in Caracas and said “everyone” would be released no later than next week, once the amnesty bill is approved.
Delcy Rodríguez and Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, spoke by phone at the end of January. Its spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, said in a statement that it “offered our support to help Venezuela work on a roadmap for dialogue and reconciliation in which human rights must be at the center” and then “deployed a team” to the South American country.
—Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.
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