The Justice of Venezuela agreed to 379 releases after the approval of the Amnesty Law, as announced by Chavista deputy Jorge Arreaza, who chairs the parliamentary commission in charge of monitoring and complying with the legislation.
Arreaza indicated that the Attorney General’s Office filed the 379 amnesty requests before the “competent courts” to grant them, and stated that those granted amnesty should be released between Friday night and this Saturday morning.
According to a report from EFEof the 379 amnesty requests, 371 are in Caracas, five in the state of Barinas, two in Portuguesa and one in Monagas.
The unanimous approval of the Amnesty Law for Democratic Coexistence constitutes a great demonstration of national unity.
I thank the Deputies of all parliamentary groups for their notable political will to move towards peace and reunion. pic.twitter.com/bmQorHSlHU— Jorge Arreaza M (@jaarreaza) February 20, 2026
Gonzalo Himiob, vice-president of the NGO Penal Forum, which leads the defense of political prisoners, reported in X that his organization has been verifying since early this Saturday the first releases derived from the legislation.
The law covers, in theory, the period established between 1999 and 2026, but specifies 13 political situations starting in 2002, which excludes arrests that occurred in at least 15 of the last 27 years, as well as cases related to military operations.
This Friday, the special commission headed by Arreaza was installed in Parliament to guarantee compliance with the amnesty.
The president in charge, Delcy Rodríguez, promulgated the law after its approval in Parliament and requested “speed” from this commission to review the cases “not contemplated” in the legislation.
Foro Penal estimated on Friday that at least 400 detainees for these reasons could be excluded from the measure and reported that it will provide the special commission with a first list for review of 232 cases.
According to its records, there are more than 600 political prisoners detained in Venezuela, after the release of 448 people since last January 8.
