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The president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Jorge Rodríguez, announced on Tuesday that 300 individuals will be released between Monday and this Friday, in a process that Nicolás Maduro's regime presents as a humanitarian gesture, but which human rights organizations describe as insufficient and opaque.
"Between yesterday (Monday) and this Friday, 300 people will be released, some involved in offenses, in proven crimes, but due to being minors or over 70 years old, or having a medical condition, a process is being followed to grant benefits to those individuals, beyond the amnesty law," Rodríguez explained during a regular session of the Legislative Assembly.
Among the first released is a 16-year-old girl, Samanta Sofía Hernández Castillo, freed after nearly six months in detention at the Antímano Care Facility in Caracas, where she had been admitted in November 2025 following a raid at her grandparents' home.
The journalist Luis Carlos Díaz described her as "the last political prisoner under the age of 18 remaining in Venezuela."
Merys Torres de Sequea, 71 years old, was also released from prison. She is the mother of Captain Antonio Sequea, who was sentenced to 24 years in prison for his alleged involvement in Operation Gedeón, a failed maritime attack against the Maduro government in May 2020.
In addition, former police officers Erasmo Bolívar, Héctor Rovaín, and Luis Molina will be released, having been sentenced to the maximum penalty of 30 years for attempted qualified homicide during the events of April 11, 2002, when at least 19 people died in the clashes at Puente Llaguno, in downtown Caracas.
The announcement comes a week after the President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated that his administration will make sure to free all political prisoners in Venezuela, declaring, "We will get them all out."
The context in which the measure takes place is grim: on May 7, the Venezuelan government acknowledged the death in custody of political prisoner Víctor Hugo Quero Navas, who passed away on July 24, 2025, but whose death was concealed from his family for more than nine months.
His mother, Carmen Teresa Navas, who searched for him for 16 months, passed away last Monday without having achieved justice.
NGOs and opposition parties demand an independent investigation with international support into this case, which has created a crisis of image for the regime.
The releases are framed within the Law of Amnesty for Democratic Coexistence, unanimously approved in February by the National Assembly and enacted that same night by Delcy Rodríguez.
However, Human Rights Watch warned on May 13 that the implementation of the law is unjust and opaque, noting that many arbitrarily detained individuals were excluded and that the courts are exceeding legal deadlines.
Juanita Goebertus Estrada, director for the Americas at HRW, was emphatic: the law "is far from guaranteeing the release of those who were arbitrarily detained for political reasons."
The gap between official figures and verified data is enormous: while the government claims that more than 8,600 people have benefited from the law, Foro Penal only verified 768 actual releases since January 8, and estimated that between 454 and 477 political prisoners remained detained at the end of April.
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