Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek Saab, said on Wednesday he hopes an amnesty law being considered by the National Assembly legislature will ensure a “100% pacified” country where the crimes included in the bill are never repeated, as he insisted that those in prison are not political detainees.
Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who took power last month after the US ouster of President Nicolas Maduro, has bowed to Trump administration demands on oil sales and released hundreds of whom human rights groups class as political prisoners, as part of a normalisation in relations between the two countries that has also included an ongoing visit by the US energy secretary.
A complete version of the amnesty law has not yet been read in full in the legislature, headed by Rodriguez’s brother Jorge Rodriguez, though it has passed an initial vote.
The assembly will meet on Thursday, but it is not yet clear whether the bill will be on the agenda.
The current version of the law is significantly less generous than a previous draft.
It no longer lists the crimes which count as political actions - including instigation of illegal activity, resistance to authorities, rebellion, treason - which were previously laid out in detail, and does not give amnesty to those accused of defamation for criticising authorities or lift Interpol red notices.
The current draft also does not return assets of those detained, revoke public office bans given for political reasons or cancel sanctions against media outlets, as the previous draft would have.
Saab told Reuters in an interview he hoped the bill would result in “a 100% pacified country that understands … that there can no longer be a repetition of any of the actions or crimes that led to this amnesty law, that it must never happen again.“
“I don’t think there can be anything anymore that tarnishes the spirit of peace and reconciliation that Venezuela deserves,“ said Saab, adding he anticipates the law will be approved in the coming days.
Saab, however, insisted that those who are imprisoned committed crimes and were not political detainees, repeating assertions he made to Reuters in 2024, before thousands were arrested for participating in protests amid a contested presidential election.
According to the current draft, the law does not provide amnesty for those convicted of human rights violations, war crimes, murder, drug trafficking, carrying sentences of more than nine years and “crimes against public property.”
Rodriguez has pledged that the infamous Helicoide detention centre in Caracas will be converted into a centre for sports and social services.
Saab would not be drawn on details, but said that there are hardly any detainees left at the site.
Rodriguez has opened “the floodgates to dialogue” since Maduro’s capture, Saab said. “She and the authorities of the State have chosen forgiveness, conciliation, pacification, dialogue — and not vengeance or retaliation.”
