Feb 5 (Reuters) – An amnesty law being considered in Venezuela’s legislature would grant immediate clemency to people jailed for participating in political protests and critiquing public figures, return assets of those detained and cancel Interpol and other international measures against those covered by the bill, allowing them to return to the country, a draft of the law seen by Reuters on Thursday showed.
The law, announced last week by interim president Delcy Rodriguez, would lead to hundreds of releases in its current form, but is still up for debate at the National Assembly, which is controlled by the socialist ruling party.
Rodriguez, who took office after the U.S. captured and deposed President Nicolas Maduro, has been complying with U.S. demands on oil deals and the government is slowly releasing people classified as political prisoners by human rights groups and the country’s opposition.
Her brother Jorge Rodriguez, the head of the assembly, is expected to read the introduction to the amnesty bill at a Thursday session. It must be approved in two debates in order to pass.
The law in its current form would not provide amnesty for those convicted of human rights violations, war crimes, murder, corruption or drug trafficking.
A long list of crimes including instigation of illegal activity, resistance towards authorities, property damage, rebellion, treason and illegal carrying of weapons will all be covered by the amnesty law if they were committed in the context of political protests, the draft seen by Reuters said, including mass protests that rocked the country and led to deaths in 2007, 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2024.
Those latest marches, in 2024, took place after a contested election which Venezuela’s opposition and international observers say the opposition roundly won, but the government and judicial authorities backed Maduro, swearing him in for a third term.
(Reporting by Reuters)
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