The Venezuelan Government announced this Thursday the release of at least 99 people who were detained in the country allegedly for political reasonsas reported by the Ministry of the Penitentiary Service in an official statement.
According to the note, the decision was adopted by the National Government and the Justice System after a “case by case” review of people arrested in the context of the presidential elections held on July 28, 2024.
Hours before the official announcement, human rights organizations they were already reporting releasesCNN noted.
The vice president of the NGO Foro Penal, Gonzalo Himiob, reported on his X account that at least 45 people had been released during the day.
According to him, among them were 15 women, 27 men and three teenagers.
For his part, the president director of Foro Penal, Alfredo Romero, had initially reported 19 releases, a figure he later raised to 26 as new cases were confirmed.
The organization maintains permanent monitoring of arrests related to political reasons in the country.
The largest collective release carried out by the Venezuelan Government
CNN reported that it contacted the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office to request additional information about the releases, but had not received a response so far.
This is the largest collective release known since at least last August, when opposition leaders reported the release of 13 political activists, including former deputy Américo De Grazia, leader Pedro Guanipa and former mayor of Maracaibo Rafael Ramírez.
Between the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, the Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office had reported on the release of hundreds of people of the more than 2,000 detained during the 2024 post-election protests.
According to the Public Ministry, those arrested had committed different crimes against the State.
Later, the president Nicolas Maduro requested to review some files due to possible procedural errors, which led to some 1,500 releases, according to official figures.
Human rights organizations maintain, however, that hundreds of political prisoners still remain in Venezuela.
As of December 20, Foro Penal counted 902 people detained for political reasons, including cases registered in 2024 and previous years.
The Venezuelan Government rejects that qualification and denies the existence of political prisoners in the country.
