[News]Maduro pardons 110 political prisoners, but forgets the most significant in Venezuela

[SougarLord]

The Nicolás Maduro regime yesterday launched a second phase of what appears to be a new political strategy for Venezuela to stimulate the interest of opposition parties in the December 6 legislative elections, considered a farce and a fraud. After the release four days ago, with precautionary measures, of the deputy Juan Requesens, yesterday he pardoned opposition deputies who were imprisoned and others who are in exile due to the persecution that the regime began years ago. A total of 110 people, although according to the Penal Forum only fifty can be considered political prisoners and there would still be 356 in Venezuelan prisons.

However, the Venezuelan regime has not wanted to benefit prominent leaders such as Leopoldo López (a refugee in the Spanish Embassy in Caracas since April 30, 2019), Julio Borges or Henrique Capriles Radonski, who in 2013 was measured in the elections presidential elections with Maduro, and previously he had done so with Hugo Chávez. Neither do any dissident military prisoners appear among the beneficiaries.

The Minister of Communication, Jorge Rodríguez, read a document signed by Nicolás Maduro announcing that he frees 110 leaders whose parliamentary immunity had been raided, as well as journalists and social actors arrested for various crimes. Among the deputies are Freddy Guevara, Henry Ramos Allup (Secretary General of Democratic Action) and Gilber Caro, as well as Roberto Marrero, who was chief of staff of the interim president, Juan Guaidó. There is also the journalist Nicmer Evans, who is imprisoned in the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence.

In the list provided by the Venezuelan authorities, there are four people who have Spanish nationality, in addition to Venezuelan: the lawyer Antonia Turbay (in the case of Iván Simonovis), Demosthenes Quijada, (Juan Guaidó's advisor), Sergio Termini (friend de Julio Borges) and Yofran Quintero.

 

The pardons were granted in order to achieve "peace and reconciliation," according to Rodríguez read in the statement through a press conference offered from Caracas. He assured that they were approved within the framework of the agreements between the Government and the opposition, prior to the elections to the National Assembly that will be held on December 6, a call in which a large part of the opposition has said that it will not participate because it is of "a farce."

 

After the announcement, Deputy Mariela Magallanes, one of the beneficiaries, assured through her Twitter account that “neither Maduro is president nor in Venezuela there is the rule of law. Therefore, her alleged pardon has no value. Our fight is for freedom to stop being hostages of a criminal tyranny. The parliamentarian was one of the opponents who sought refuge in a legation when the National Constituent Assembly waived her immunity. Over the months, Magellan managed to leave Venezuela for Italy.

 

Américo De Grazia also launched a resounding message on social networks: “Neither Maduro is president, nor am I a criminal. If you want to contribute to the peace of Venezuela, pardon the country from the usurpation of power, renounce the factual occupation of the tragedy that has subjected our people and perhaps that way we will have something to thank you for.

 

 

Hunt for deputies

A large part of those pardoned left Venezuela fleeing the persecution of the regime, as is the case of José Guerra, Mariella Magallanes, Miguel Pizarro, Juan Andrés Mejía, Américo De Grazia, among others. While Fredy Guevara has been a guest at the Chilean embassy since November 2017, after being persecuted for leading large demonstrations against the Chavista government.

 

The hunt for deputies was started by the regime after the failed coup in April 2019, in which Guaidó and Leopoldo López participated. So the regime had between eyebrows to dismantle Parliament, the only state institution controlled by the opposition since 2015.

 

But three years ago, after the creation of the Constituent Assembly, the regime waived the parliamentary immunity of its detractors and since then, the Chavista leadership insisted on the capture of opponents who make up the Legislative Power under the argument that they supported Operation Libertad, for what were branded as betraying the country.