Caracas, Venezuela — Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez announced that an amnesty law aimed at freeing political prisoners detained during Nicolas Maduro’s administration will expire two months after it was approved in February.
“This amnesty law is now expiring,” the president said at an event held at the Miraflores Palace, the presidential palace, on the 24th. “Cases to which this amnesty law does not apply or are explicitly excluded can be resolved in other ways.”
He continued, “The Democratic Coexistence and Peace Plan, of which some members have moved to the executive branch, has a forum that handles cases related to the judiciary, and the same goes for the Criminal Justice Reform Committee.”
Rodriguez told the meeting that about 8,616 people had been released under the amnesty law, the BBC reported.
According to Foro Penal, an NGO that monitors political detention in the country, the number of political prisoners currently in prison is 473. (Other NGOs put the number of political prisoners still in detention as high as 670.) As the amnesty law wears off, many families are worried about their fate.
Other NGOs, such as the Venezuelan Program for Action on Education and Human Rights (Provea), were more forceful, rejecting Rodriguez’s comments and labeling the move a major setback for the country.
The group said, “This is an arbitrary and unconstitutional measure that does not contribute to the process of coexistence and peace announced so far.”
Despite these limitations, he added, “the amnesty law is the first step toward dismantling the repressive framework that has suppressed the rights of the Venezuelan people in recent years.”
The organization argues that measures such as amnesty for political prisoners should be part of the country’s readjustment process.
“This should be a first step in that direction, but not a prerequisite for the complete release of all people deprived of their liberty for political reasons,” Provea said.
Featured image: Families of political prisoners protest in Caracas, February 2026.
Image credit: Julio Blanca for Latin America Report
