In Venezuela, a group of political prisoners was released on Saturday night, human rights activists said. Among them was Wilder Vásquez, who was sentenced in 2018 to five years in prison on charges of plotting to kill former president Nicolás Maduro.
The Venezuelan human rights organization Foro Penal confirmed the release of Miguel Castillo Cedeño, whom, according to its data, was arbitrarily detained in June 2019. Frank Cabañas was also freed: human rights activists linked him to the death of a police officer, and Foro Penal called him the only suspect who was still in custody after nine years in prison.
Foro Penal vice president Gonzalo Himiob said that a “significant number” of political prisoners were released in several Venezuelan detention centers. Venezuelan authorities have not yet made any statements about the latest releases and have not said whether they are linked to Rodríguez’s conversation with Trump.
The releases came after Rodríguez met with Trump in New York amid renewed calls for free elections. In her speech at the UN General Assembly on Thursday, Rodríguez said that there “will be elections” in Venezuela, but did not give a date.
Earlier, Rodríguez’s administration had already released hundreds of prisoners as part of a reconciliation campaign. In April, the pace of releases sharply slowed after Rodríguez said the scheme was “coming to an end”, and Foro Penal then said that less than half of the political prisoners had been released.
Authorities and the opposition assess these steps differently: Rodríguez’s cabinet calls them a gesture of goodwill and reconciliation, while opponents and human rights activists say Maduro’s regime has for years used political arrests to suppress dissent. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello called Rodríguez’s meeting with Trump “a great triumph of peace diplomacy”.
Sources
