Venezuela’s top lawmaker says over 400 prisoners freed, NGOs say numbers much lower

Jan 13 (Reuters) – Venezuela’s top lawmaker Jorge Rodriguez said on Tuesday that over 400 people had been freed from prison as part of an ongoing release process, although rights groups say they estimate a much lower figure of between 60 and 70 have been freed in recent days.

Rodriguez, the president of the National Assembly, and U.S. President Donald Trump both said last week that large numbers of prisoners would be released as a peace gesture after the U.S. capture of President Nicolas Maduro.

The release of people considered political prisoners by the opposition has been one of their long-standing demands. The Venezuelan government has always denied it holds people for political reasons and has said it has already released most of the 2,000 people detained after protests over the contested 2024 election.

“The decision to release some prisoners, not political prisoners, but some politicians who had broken the law and violated the Constitution, people who called for invasion, was granted,” Rodriguez said during a parliamentary session on Tuesday, adding that this was intended to promote “peaceful coexistence.”

Over 400 had been released, he said, without giving a specific timeline.

Local NGOs have said that the number of prisoners freed since Thursday ranges between 60 and 70, and have denounced a slow pace and lack of information surrounding the releases.

On Monday, Venezuela’s penitentiary authority had said that 116 people had been freed.

Foro Penal, a leading local NGO that works on legal support for detainees, said at least 800 political prisoners were behind bars at the beginning of this year. 

Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, who is expected to meet with Trump on Thursday, has been one of the leading voices demanding the release of prisoners, some of whom are her close allies.

Families and rights groups have denounced what they say is abusive treatment of detainees, including the denial of medical care, the use of solitary confinement, a lack of access to legal counsel and even torture.

(Reporting by Reuters staff, Editing by Iñigo Alexander and Rosalba O’Brien)