Venezuela, media: Rodriguez announces amnesty for political prisoners

Caracas, Jan. 31 (LaPresse) – Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodríguez announced a general amnesty for imprisoned political prisoners. The news was reported by El Pais, which wrote that Rodríguez spoke about it at a closed-door event at the Supreme Court of Justice, stating: “I announce a general amnesty law and ask that this law be presented to the National Assembly to promote coexistence in Venezuela.” The measure could concern hundreds of political prisoners still held in Venezuelan prisons. The initiative aims to grant amnesty and to drop the charges against those who have been released. The announcement, El Pais recalls, comes almost one month after the capture of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces on January 3. Since then, according to the Chavista regime, more than 600 prisoners have been released, 302 according to their supporters. “I come to this Chamber as president, but also as a lawyer,” Rodríguez said, according to those who heard her. “My father was imprisoned and died as a result of torture. I believe in the Constitution, in national sovereignty and in justice for the Venezuelan people. We need more justice, with greater legal protection,” she continued, recalling her father, one of the founders of the movement in which Nicolás Maduro took his first steps in politics and who was murdered by his jailers. The interim president also announced that El Helicoide, the feared prison symbol of the regime’s repression, will be transformed into a social and sports center for the community.