2 hours ago
2
Venezuela’s acting president announced on Friday a proposal for mass amnesty in the country, in her latest significant reform since the US toppling of Nicolás Maduro just weeks ago.
In a speech at the Venezuelan supreme court attended by top government officials, Delcy Rodríguez said she would propose a “general amnesty law covering the entire period of political violence from 1999 to the present”.
Leftist revolutionary Hugo Chávez assumed the presidency in 1999, and was succeeded upon his death in 2013 by Maduro, who oversaw an increasingly authoritarian government and whose two re-elections were widely dismissed as fraudulent.
“This law will serve to heal the wounds left by political confrontation, fuelled by violence and extremism. It will allow us to put justice back on track in our country,” Rodríguez said, also announcing a “major national consultation for a new judicial system”.
She announced also plans to close the notorious El Helicoide prison in Caracas, where rights groups say political prisoners were tortured by Maduro’s intelligence services.
The massive facility, originally built as a shopping mall, will be turned into a “sports, cultural and commercial centre for police families and neighbouring communities,” Rodríguez said.
A mother interviewed by AFP near El Helicoide was overjoyed that her son, imprisoned inside, would possibly soon be released under the law.
“It’s wonderful! I haven’t heard from my son in six months, so, damn it, this is a huge joy, it’s an amnesty, my God, it’s total liberation,” said Betsy Orellana, 63.
Formerly Maduro’s vice-president, Rodríguez, 56, has moved quickly – in less than four weeks in power – to overhaul Venezuelan society in ways sought by the US, earning high praise from President Donald Trump.
With her brother, the national assembly president, Jorge Rodríguez , she has passed a new law opening up the country’s critical oil sector to private investments – one of Trump’s demands.
The move on Thursday was almost immediately followed by a rollback of US sanctions targeting Venezuela’s oil industry.
The government also agreed on 8 January, five days after Maduro was seized in a deadly US military operation, to free inmates that are considered political prisoners by rights groups.
Families – many of whom began camping outside the prisons – and rights groups have criticised the slow pace of the releases, with the NGP, Foro Penal, counting less than 300 prisoners released since 8 January.
Opposition figures in Venezuela have expressed reserved optimism about the changes, wary that Maduro’s closest allies remain in power.
The Nobel Peace prize laureate and Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said on Friday Rodríguez amnesty proposal came only after she was pushed by Washington.
“This is not a voluntary gesture by the regime, but a response to pressure from the United States government. And I hope that the prisoners will soon be able to be with their families,” she posted on social media.
Opposition lawmaker Tomás Guanipa, whose two brothers are imprisoned, said he hoped the amnesty would end “an era of repression”.
“May this be the beginning of a path that leads us to freedom and democracy, definitively and forever,” he told AFP.
US authorities on Friday announced that all Americans known to be held prisoner in Venezuela had been released.
The announcement came hours after the release of Peruvian-American political prisoner Arturo Gallino Rullier, whom the Foro Penal group said was on his way to the US.
For years, Venezuela has routinely arrested foreigners and members of the domestic opposition on a range of charges from spying to plotting attacks – charges critics dismiss as fabricated.
In a sign of Trump’s satisfaction with the new Venezuelan authorities, his administration has lifted a ban on US flights to the South American country.
And after years of the US embassy being closed, Washington is also preparing to re-establish its diplomatic presence in Caracas.
Seasoned diplomat Laura Dogu was recently named US charge d’affaires for Venezuela – the highest level representative below an ambassador.
Dogu is expected to arrive in Caracas on Saturday, diplomatic sources told AFP.
