The president in charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, announced this Thursday that the amnesty "is coming to an end", two months after the law was approved - which does not contemplate an expiration - and when there are still 473 political prisoners, according to non-governmental organizations.
First modification: 04/24/2026 - 17:40 Last modification: 04/24/2026 - 18:15
The president did not give details or explain what the "purpose" of the Amnesty Law, sanctioned on February 19, consists of, and assured that the cases that "were expressly excluded" in the text may be attended to in other spaces, such as the government Program for Peace and Democratic Coexistence and the Commission for the Reform of Criminal Justice, installed this Thursday.
In his opinion, the amnesty "has gone very well in terms of coverage, in terms of the beneficiaries," despite what he described as "voices that seek to disrupt the processes."
The Chavista leader expressed that the amnesty "arose as a consequence of the intensification of the political confrontation in Venezuela that led to external aggression," in reference to the United States attacks on Venezuelan soil on January 3 during which Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured.
The Amnesty Law contemplates a period of 27 years, since 1999 - when Chavismo came to power -, but indicates that it will be granted to people linked to 13 "events" that occurred in 13 different years, which excludes the rest of the established time, as well as cases related to military operations and other crimes, such as corruption, homicide and human rights violations.
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As of Wednesday, 8,616 people had been amnestied, of which 314 were imprisoned and the rest had precautionary measures, as reported at the time by Chavista deputy Jorge Arreaza, who chairs the parliamentary commission in charge of monitoring the norm.
Likewise, he indicated that the authorities received a total of 12,187 valid amnesty requests, that is, they correspond to the crimes and periods established in the legislation.
Arreaza then added that they continued "receiving requests from Venezuelans living inside and outside the country."
The authorities have not published an official list with the identities of the beneficiaries, despite the request of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, and several Venezuelan NGOs.
The NGO Foro Penal, which leads the defense of political prisoners in Venezuela, stated that, according to its records, less than 25% of the releases that have occurred this year in the country are due to the Amnesty Law.
The regulations warn in their last article that "beneficiaries who commit "crimes committed after" the entry into force of the text "will be prosecuted."
This Thursday, Rodríguez installed a commission that will be in charge of a "major consultation" to reform criminal justice, with the objective, he stated, of overcoming the "evils that persist" in this system, affected by procedural delays and corruption.
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