Venezuela releases dozens of post-election detainees on Christmas
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CARACAS: Venezuelan authorities released at least 60 people detained during protests against President Nicolas Maduro’s re-election early on Christmas Day (Dec 25), according to a human rights advocacy group.
The arrests followed mass demonstrations after Maduro secured a third term in July 2024 elections that were widely criticised by the opposition and international observers as fraudulent. Authorities responded with a sweeping crackdown in which about 2,400 people were detained, though nearly 2,000 have since been released.
Despite the latest move, rights groups say hundreds remain behind bars. Foro Penal, a Venezuelan legal NGO, says there are at least 902 political prisoners currently held across the country.
RIGHTS GROUPS WELCOME RELEASES, SEEK MORE
The Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners, an organisation made up of activists and relatives of detainees, said the releases began early on Thursday and described them as long overdue.
“We celebrate the release of more than 60 Venezuelans, who should never have been arbitrarily detained,” said committee head Andreina Baduel in comments to AFP.
“Although they are not entirely free, we will continue working for their full freedom and that of all political prisoners,” she added.
DETENTION CONDITIONS REMAIN UNCLEAR
The exact legal conditions attached to the releases were not immediately known. AFP requested details from Venezuela’s Prosecutor’s Office, but there was no immediate response.
Relatives of the detainees said those released had been held at Tocoron, a maximum-security prison in Aragua state, about 134 kilometres from the capital Caracas.
Baduel said the releases, while welcome, did little to ease the suffering of families still waiting for loved ones to be freed. “We must remember that there are more than 1,000 families with political prisoners,” she said. Baduel’s father, Raul Isaias Baduel, a former general and once an ally of late president Hugo Chavez, died in prison in 2021.
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