Venezuela’s National Assembly on Thursday unanimously approved a long-awaited amnesty law that could lead to the release of hundreds of political prisoners detained for opposing the government.
However, the legislation excludes individuals prosecuted or convicted of promoting military action against the state — a provision that could encompass opposition figures such as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, who has been accused by the ruling party of calling for international intervention following the removal of former president Nicolas Maduro.
The bill was subsequently signed into law by interim president Delcy Rodriguez, who advanced the measure amid pressure from Washington after she assumed power following Maduro’s capture during a US military raid on January 3.
“One must know how to ask for forgiveness, and one must also know how to receive forgiveness,” Rodriguez said at the Miraflores Palace in the capital, Caracas, after signing the legislation.
The law applies retroactively to 1999, covering episodes such as the coup attempt against former president Hugo Chavez, the 2002 oil strike, and the 2024 unrest that followed Maduro’s disputed re-election. For many families, it offers hope that detained relatives may finally be freed.
Nonetheless, critics fear the legislation could be used selectively — pardoning government allies while denying relief to genuine prisoners of conscience.
Article 9 specifies that amnesty will not apply to “persons who are being prosecuted or may be convicted for promoting, instigating, soliciting, invoking, favouring, 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.
The National Assembly had postponed several sittings before ultimately passing the bill.
In a statement issued from Geneva on Thursday, UN human rights experts said the scope of the law “must be limited to victims of human rights violations and expressly exclude those accused of serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity, including state, paramilitary and non-state actors ”.
Genuine will?
Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Venezuelans have been detained in recent years over alleged plots – real or suspected – to overthrow Maduro, who was ultimately removed in the deadly US military operation.
Relatives of detainees have reported torture, ill-treatment and untreated medical conditions in custody.
The NGO Foro Penal says around 450 prisoners have been released since Maduro’s removal, though more than 600 remain behind bars.
Families have staged vigils outside prisons in recent weeks, demanding further releases. A small group in Caracas ended a near week-long hunger strike on Thursday.
“The National Assembly has the opportunity to demonstrate whether there is a genuine will for national reconciliation,” Foro Penal director Gonzalo Himiob wrote on X ahead of the vote.
On Wednesday, the head of the US military command responsible for operations against suspected drug-smuggling vessels off South America held talks in Caracas with Rodriguez and senior ministers Vladimir Padrino Lopez and Diosdado Cabello – both long-time Maduro allies who had consistently echoed his anti-imperialist rhetoric.
Rodriguez’s interim administration has governed with the consent of US President Donald Trump, on condition that it grants access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
