Caracas [Venezuela], January 15: Venezuela's top lawmaker says more than 400 people have been freed from prison, contradicting claims from rights groups that only between 60 to 70 prisoners have been released in recent days, amid calls for freeing those imprisoned for political reasons.
Jorge Rodriguez, the president of the National Assembly, made the announcement during a parliamentary session on Tuesday.
"The decision to release some prisoners, not political prisoners, but some politicians who had broken the law and violated the Constitution, people who called for invasion, was granted," Rodriguez told parliament. He said more than 400 prisoners had been released, but did not provide a specific timeline.
AFP news agency quoted an unnamed US State Department official as saying that US citizens were among those released.
"We welcome the release of detained Americans in Venezuela. This is an important step in the right direction by the interim authorities," the official said.
Both Rodriguez and United States President Donald Trump have said that large numbers of prisoners would be freed as a peace gesture following the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3 by US forces.
The release of political prisoners in Venezuela has been a long-running call of rights groups, international bodies and opposition figures.
The Venezuelan government has always denied that it holds people for political reasons and has said it has already released most of the 2,000 people detained after protests over the contested 2024 presidential election.
Human rights groups estimated there are 800 to 1,200 political prisoners in Venezuela and have said that the number of prisoners freed since last week ranges between 60 and 70, and have denounced the slow pace and lack of information surrounding the releases.
Venezuela's Ministry of Penitentiary Services said that at least 116 prisoners were released on Monday.
Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado has been one of the leading voices demanding the release of prisoners, some of whom are her close allies. She is expected to meet with Trump on Thursday in Washington, DC.
Source: Qatar Tribune