A total of 131 Venezuelan political prisoners, detained after the July 28 presidential elections, have been released since Saturday by authorities, according to the non-governmental organization (NGO) Penal Forum.
After the releases, 1,700 people remain detained in the country for political reasons, according to the same source.
“In the PF, we registered and verified 131 releases, carried out by reviewing measures requested by the Public Ministry”, announced the director of the NGO, Alfredo Romero, on his account on X.
On the same social network, Romero explains that the released prisoners will be brought to justice this Monday, “so that alternative measures to prison can be applied.”
“For most of them, there is no full freedom and legal proceedings continue”, he highlights.
According to the Penal Forum, 26 adult men were released from Yare 3 prison, with more than 200 political prisoners still being held there.
On the other hand, more than 86 men were released from the Tocorón penitentiary, all adults, and more than 800 people remain in detention.
There were also releases in the prisons of La Guaira, Tocuyito and in the La Crisálida Training Center for Female Prisoners.
Meanwhile, the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners reported via social media that orders for the release of several detainees in Tocuyito had not yet arrived.
“Mothers and family members are waiting for the release of their political prisoners in Tocuyito. Yesterday (Saturday), they were informed that more than 80 prisoners would be released and today they are being denied the release bulletins. Prison officials say the Ministry of Popular Power for the Penitentiary Service has not yet issued them”, he reported in X.
The releases began on Saturday, one day after the Public Ministry announced that it would review the cases of 225 of the 2,400 people who were detained following protests against the results of the presidential elections on July 28 in which Nicolás Maduro was declared re-elected, and that the opposition contests.
On November 12, the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, asked local authorities to review the legal processes of teenagers detained in the post-presidential election protests on July 28, admitting the possibility that some type of procedural error had occurred.
Venezuela held presidential elections on July 28, after which the National Electoral Council (CNE) awarded victory to the country’s current President, Nicolas Maduro, with just over 51% of the votes, while the opposition claims that their candidate, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia obtained almost 70% of the votes.
The Venezuelan opposition and many countries have denounced electoral fraud and demanded that voting records be presented for independent verification.
The election results were contested in the streets, with demonstrations repressed by the security forces, with, according to the authorities, more than 2,400 arrests, 27 deaths and 192 injuries.
Source: expresso.pt
