Authorities in Venezuela have freed more than 100 people listed as political prisoners, according to a rights group, including a lawyer who was imprisoned in 2024 after visiting clients at a detention facility.
The Caracas-based Foro Penal said at least 104 prisoners were released on Sunday and that the number could rise.
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It said one of its lawyers, Kennedy Tejeda, and a communications student, Juan Francisco Alvarado, were among those freed from detention.
Tejeda, a lawyer and human rights activist, had been last seen on August 2, 2024, when he visited a detention centre in Carabobo state to provide legal assistance to political prisoners, according to the NGO.
“Our dear comrade Kennedy Tejeda, lawyer, human rights defender, political prisoner in Tocorón since August 2, 2024, has been released from prison. Now back at home with his family,” Foro Penal’s executive director, Alfredo Romero, said in a statement on social media.
“We continue verifying other releases,” Romero added. “It would be ideal for the government to publish lists of releases.”
Gonzalo Himiob, Foro Penal’s vice president, said the number of releases was “non-definitive” and could increase.
Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodriguez promised to release prisoners detained under Nicolas Maduro, in her first media briefing after the former leader’s abduction by US special forces earlier this month.
Rodriguez said the move to free hundreds of prisoners, many of whom were picked up in a crackdown on dissent following Maduro’s refusal to concede the 2024 presidential election, marked the beginning of a “new political moment” that allowed greater political and ideological diversity.
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The Venezuelan government has announced the release of more than 600 prisoners in recent weeks, including Rafael Tudares Bracho, the son-in-law of Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez.
Rights groups have disputed the government’s figures, with Foro Penal estimating that only about half as many people have been released as claimed by the authorities.
Rodriguez said in a speech broadcast on state television last week that she would speak to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, on Monday to request the UN to confirm the figures.
Foro Penal said there were 777 political prisoners in Venezuelan jails as of January 19.
