Venezuela AG hopes amnesty law will lead to ‘pacified country’, insists prisoners committed crimes

By Julia Symmes Cobb and Vivian Sequera

CARACAS, Feb 11 (Reuters) – 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 U.S. 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 normalization in relations between the two countries that has also included an ongoing visit by the U.S. 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, does not give amnesty to those accused of defamation for criticizing 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. 

“I call them prisoners, I don’t give anything any additional label,” he said. “They are detainees for actions that at the time were documented.”

The amnesty will cover more than half a century, from 1999 until the law is passed, Saab said.

Government officials say nearly 900 people have been released over more than a year, while legal rights group Foro Penal has counted more than 430 releases of people they classify as political prisoners since January 8. 

Asked about the return of seized assets and Interpol notices, Saab said those details would become public once the law is approved, but that Venezuelans living outside the country should “submit themselves to justice” as part of the amnesty process.

Many members of the opposition and dissident former officials live in other countries to escape arrest warrants they say are politically motivated.

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 the infamous Helicoide detention center in Caracas will be converted into a center 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.”

(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb and Vivian Sequera in Caracas; editing by Diane Craft)