Venezuela's National Assembly on Thursday unanimously approved a long-awaited amnesty law that could free hundreds of political prisoners jailed for being government critics, UNN reports with reference to AFP.
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But the law does not apply to those who have been prosecuted or convicted for promoting military actions against the country, which may include opposition leaders such as Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado, whom the ruling party has accused of calling for international intervention similar to that which removed former President Nicolás Maduro.
The bill was signed by interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez, who pushed for the law's passage under pressure from Washington after coming to power following Maduro's capture during a US military raid on January 3, the publication writes.
"One must know how to ask for forgiveness, and one must also know how to receive forgiveness," Rodríguez said at the Miraflores presidential palace in the capital Caracas after signing the bill.
In one of the first releases after the bill's passage, Machado's ally and former Vice President of the National Assembly Juan Pablo Guanipa announced his release from custody after approximately nine months of imprisonment and house arrest.
"After 10 months in hiding and almost nine months of unjust imprisonment, I confirm that I am now completely free," Guanipa wrote on social media, posting a photo of himself holding the country's flag.
He called for the release of all other political prisoners and for exiles to be allowed to return, criticizing the law not as an amnesty, but as an "imperfect document" that excludes some Venezuelans who remain behind bars.
"I thank all Venezuelans for fighting for my release and the release of all political prisoners," he wrote.
The law is to be applied retroactively to 1999, including the coup against former leader Hugo Chávez, the 2002 oil strike, and the 2024 unrest against Maduro's disputed re-election, giving hope to families that loved ones will finally return home.
However, some fear that the government may use the law to pardon its prisoners and selectively release true prisoners of conscience.
Article 9 of the bill lists those excluded from amnesty as "persons prosecuted or who may be convicted for promoting, inciting, extorting, inducing, facilitating, financing, or participating in armed actions or the use of force against the people, sovereignty, and territorial integrity" of Venezuela "by foreign states, corporations, or individuals."