Attorney General Tarek William Saab defines the upcoming amnesty as the path to “real pacification” in Venezuela, which includes mass releases and leads to the United States’ gesture of releasing the President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, and the first lady, Representative Cilia Flores, who were kidnapped on January 3 by US military forces after a military incursion that included bombings in Caracas and other regions.
In an interview with AFP, prosecutor Saab celebrated the announcement made by the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, of a general amnesty and highlighted the public consultation process of the project in which jurists, opposition leaders and even relatives of those deprived of liberty participated. “We Venezuelans deserve peace, for everything to be debated through dialogue,” he concludes.
Saab also highlighted that the Citizen Power unanimously supports the draft amnesty law promoted by the president in charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, and stressed that the bodies he directs have made contributions and ideas to the aforementioned draft bill that is currently being discussed within the National Assembly.
The prosecutor defends that the law covers the different crises throughout all these years, to which. “Attempted assassinations, invasions, maritime raids,” he lists. “Violent demonstrations with dozens, hundreds of dead, wounded,” which he described as “embryos of civil war.”
On the other hand, he described this initiative as exceptional, because it covers the most important historical moments of contemporary Venezuela of the last quarter of a century, which is why he hopes that the amnesty law guarantees a “100% pacified” country where the crimes included in the bill are not repeated.
Saab defends a state policy of forgiveness and assures that “massive releases have occurred”, although he insists that the amnesty will not cover everyone. «Recidivism in punishable acts cannot continue to occur. If they are giving you grace measures to participate in political life in a healthy way, that must be respected,” he points out.
Humanitarian gesture
The attorney general describes the kidnapping of the presidential couple as illegal and in violation of international law. He considers that the reconciliation promoted by the amnesty should equally benefit President Nicolás Maduro and the first lady, Cilia Flores.
“Within what this humanitarian, historic, unprecedented gesture of the amnesty law that covers all factors of the State implies, I would say, including as a message” that “when the hearing takes place in March, the freedom of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores will be decreed,” he expressed.
“We are reaching out,” says the prosecutor, and from this gesture “the international sanctions” against the country will be lifted.
