Releases are delayed in Venezuela and a new protest movement challenges Chavismo

Evelis Cano, who has been waiting for more than 27 days in a tent at the doors of the police station, Zone 7, for her son Jack Tantak to be released, told Clarion: “We have already seen that the Rodríguez brothers (Delcy and Jorge, president of Parliament) are dedicated to lying to the people about everything. This is a deception and a lie. We are disappointed,” he said, referring to the delay in the discussion of the Amnesty Law that the interim president has promised.

Evelis Cano added: “The relatives of political prisoners are also victims. Delcy’s announcement gave us hope that this week we would see our political prisoners released on Wednesday. And now we see that they continue to mock us. We are going to continue protesting and camping. I call on all Venezuelans to join the university students to ask for the release of political prisoners and freedom of expression and freedom for all, not just in dribs and drabs.”

Diego Casanova, leader of the NGO Committee for the Liberation of Political Prisoners, Justice and Freedom (CLIPP), bitterly felt the absence of the parliamentary debate on the amnesty: “The mockery and ignorance of the entire reality that the relatives of political prisoners continue to experience.”

“I get the impression that there is no will to free the political prisoners. They have created so many expectations for us with the announcement of the amnesty that we feel they have mocked us. The regime continues to play with the expectations created, they want to buy time with the pain of the victims, that is why they have not presented the law in parliament. For us it is cruel because the relatives have the hope of seeing their prisoners free,” said Casanova.

The fact that Parliament did not discuss Amnesty in its ordinary Tuesday session was bitter for the relatives of the political prisoners. The debate was now scheduled for this Thursday.

Venezuelans have begun to wake up, taking to the streets with protests to demand the release of political prisoners. Its first steps come with small demonstrations of chained relatives who camp in front of the prisons, waiting for the release of the detainees.

For now, the mobilization of the protesters is concentrated in the Plaza del Rectorado of the Central University of Venezuela from where they leave for the highway in Plaza Venezuela and take a brief tour of the place. The slogans are “Freedom for political prisoners. Freedom of Expression. Economic Freedom. Living wages (the minimum wage is 0.30 dollars per month). Amnesty Law.”

The Plaza del Rectorado of the UCV is also a collection center that the federation of university centers has organized to help with food, blankets and medicine to relatives who are camping at the gates of the prisons.

The movement is incipient but challenging, due to the prohibitions that exist such as the State of Foreign Commotion decree that detains people for speaking and celebrating the fall of Nicolás Maduro, in force since January 3 when the dictator was captured and taken to be tried in New York by the United States military force.

The relatives of the political prisoners do not talk about Maduro but they do loudly demand in the streets the release of the detainees. It all started on January 8 when the Delcy brothers (president in charge) and Jorge Rodríguez (president of the National Assembly) promised that they were going to release a large number of prisoners for political reasons.

The announcement filled the doors of the various penitentiary centers with relatives and human rights activists asking for his release but not in dribs and drabs as they have done until now. Additionally, Delcy Rodríguez announced an amnesty law to be approved quickly and urgently by parliament. However, The National Assembly has not yet received the amnesty bill, which frustrated the hopes of the relatives who count on this amnesty to be able to see their political prisoners free.

The protest of Venezuelan students who return to the streets challenges Delcy’s recycled Chavismo. Various groups of professionals, mothers and relatives of political prisoners, students, workers and programs who will march again on February 12 participated in the rally this Tuesday at the UCV.

Fanny Lozada, mother of Ariannys Araujo Lozada, fainted when telling the story of her daughter and grandchildren, who – she denounced – were tortured. “Not one nor two, free them all”: family members and students demand to accelerate amnesty.

The committee (CLIPP) demanded the immediate disclosure of the draft amnesty law and called for a public, transparent process subject to social scrutiny.

While Amnesty International urges that the amnesty law in Venezuela not be a “mechanism of impunity.”