Venezuela debates sweeping amnesty for political prisoners

BOGOTA, Colombia — Shortly after the U.S. military operation last month that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, political prisoner Nicmer Evans was released from jail. But he’s not off the hook yet.

Evans, a political analyst and journalist, still faces charges of terrorism and hate crimes for criticizing the Maduro regime, and he could eventually be sent back to prison.

“I’m not allowed to leave the country,” he told NPR of his conditional release from prison on Jan. 14. “I have to report to the authorities every 15 days.”

Legions of Venezuelans are in similar legal limbo. The country’s jails hold hundreds of political prisoners, while thousands of former detainees have criminal charges hanging over their heads.

Others were forced into exile, lost government jobs, or saw their properties confiscated for opposing Maduro or his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, who between them ruled Venezuela for the past 27 years.

Under pressure from the Trump administration, which holds significant leverage over the new government, Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez – who had been Maduro’s vice president – is starting to make amends. Her government has freed 431 political prisoners since Jan. 8 and pledged to close the notorious El Helicoide, a Caracas prison and center for torture.

Now, Rodríguez is promoting an amnesty law.

“Revenge, retaliation, and hatred must not overwhelm us,” Rodríguez declared in a recent speech. “We offer the chance to live in Venezuela in peace.”

On Thursday, the National Assembly began debating articles of a draft amnesty bill, which is expected to be approved soon, as the ruling Socialist Party holds the majority of seats and is presided over by Jorge Rodríguez, the interim president’s brother.

“We are asking for pardon, and we must be willing to pardon others,” he says.

But already, the bill has come under attack by human rights groups and relatives of political prisoners.

For one thing, government officials have portrayed amnesty as a way to expedite the release of more than 500 dissidents still behind bars. But legal experts say that could be done immediately, without any new legislation.

Although Venezuela has a new head of state, the corrupt and repressive government institutions built up by Maduro, who ruled the country until 2013, remain in place, says opposition lawmaker Antonio Ecarri.

Ecarri, who is on the legislative commission studying the amnesty bill, points out that Venezuelan courts are still packed with pro-regime judges who did Maduro’s bidding and sent thousands of innocent people to prison.

Yet under the current version of the amnesty bill, victims of government repression will have to go before these same judges to request amnesty.

“It makes no sense,” Ecarri says.

Juanita Goebertus, the Americas director for Human Rights Watch, says there are “very serious limitations” in the amnesty bill. For example, to give ex-political prisoners a clean slate and a fresh start, it calls for destroying their prison files. However, some prisoners were sexually abused or tortured.

“We fear that this could lead to the elimination of evidence that could be key in the eventual (prosecution) of human rights violations,” Goebertus says.

Government officials and heavily armed security forces committed the vast majority of abuses over the past quarter-century. However, language in the bill, along with speeches by ruling party legislators, portrays unarmed opposition activists as equally responsible.

Dissidents “are demanding amnesty, but they lack the humility to recognize that the state is prepared to pardon them for all the crimes they committed,” says Iris Varela, a pro-government legislator.

Gonzalo Himiob, vice president of the Venezuelan legal aid group Foro Penal, says government officials refuse to recognize political prisoners as victims of grave human rights violations because that would be tacit recognition of the government’s responsibility in abusing them.

Goebertus adds: “There has to be acknowledgment that there were very serious human rights violations committed by the regime. And there has to be truth-telling about these crimes. And that is certainly not present in this amnesty bill at all.”

Still, the current debate would have been unthinkable just a few months ago, and some view it as the first step toward a democratic opening in Venezuela.

Ecarri, the opposition lawmaker, says: “There are no miraculous solutions, but things are slowly starting to happen.”
Despite his own misgivings about the amnesty bill, Evans, the recently freed political prisoner, was also optimistic.

“We are better off than we were in December,” Evans says. “In December, I was in jail. Today, I’m not.”