The NGO Justice, Encounter and Forgiveness (JEP) called this Thursday for the release of all political prisoners in Venezuela, which number 1,085, after the release of dozens of people who had been detained during the post-election crisis of 2024, unleashed by the complaint of fraud in the result that gave Nicolás Maduro’s re-election.
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“The selective and discretionary nature of these releases confirms that deprivation of liberty has been used as an instrument of political persecution,” the organization stated.
For the NGO, the restitution of freedom through decisions of a “political nature” reveals the “absence of effective judicial guarantees” and reinforces the “arbitrary nature of these detentions” in Venezuela, all of this – it added – “in open contravention of national and international standards on human rights.”
JEP called on “immediate and unconditional release” of all political prisoners, especially – he specified – the cases of women, older adults and those who he claimed suffer from serious illnesses, warning that their “permanence in confinement represents a high risk for their life and personal integrity.”
“Collective relief”
For his part, the general coordinator of Provea, Oscar Murillo, stated that the releases are a “collective relief”although he regretted that, “as on previous occasions,” the information was “opaque” and that human rights defenders such as Rocío San Miguel, Javier Tarazona, Kennedy Tejada, Carlos Julio Rojas and Eduardo Torres.
After the presidential elections of July 28, 2024, a crisis broke out in Venezuela, as a result of the controversial re-election of Maduro, proclaimed by the electoral body – controlled by officials related to Chavismo – and the complaint of “fraud” by the majority opposition, which claims the victory of Edmundo González Urrutiacurrently in exile.
In this context, more than 2,400 people were detained – most of them released – and accused of being “terrorists”according to the Prosecutor’s Office, although several NGOs and opposition parties defend them as innocent and assure that they are political prisoners.
The NGO Foro Penal counts 902 political prisoners in Venezuela, the majority detained after the presidential elections, according to a bulletin released last week, which has a cut-off date of December 15.
However, the Executive of Ripe assures that the country is “free of political prisoners” and that those designated as such are imprisoned for the “commission of terrible punishable acts.”
