Machado warns that if the Venezuelan Government applies the amnesty selectively “it is repression”

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has warned that if the Venezuelan authorities “selectively” apply the Amnesty Law approved in the National Assembly, it is still a form of “repression.”

“Selectively denying the amnesty is repression. The regime headed by (President) Delcy Rodríguez intends to prolong the terror to break the morale of those who fight for democracy and freedom in Venezuela, who are already so close,” Machado warned in a message published on social networks.

“The regime believes that through its selective ‘justice’ it demonstrates that it has power and control. We Venezuelans know that in reality they fear a nation that has decided to be free,” he argued.

The opposition leader has assured that “They will not be able to” because “Venezuela decided to be free.” “We have made a lot of progress, and now everything is accelerating. Today, with each abuse of the regime we are not paralyzed, but rather the conviction that this process is unstoppable is strengthened,” he stated.

Machado has referred to the case of Perkins Rocha who was his lawyer and representative of the Command with Venezuela during the electoral process of July 28, 2024, which the opposition denounces as fraudulent. “The regime kidnapped him for 17 months because of the power and precision of his words. For telling and defending the truth,” he said.

Rocha “today remains imprisoned in his house with an electronic shackle on his ankle and they deny him amnesty.” “Perkins Rocha and all political prisoners must be completely free. Not released, not prosecuted: Free!” he appealed.

The NGO Penal Forum has reported this Saturday that a total of 690 releases of political prisoners have been recorded in Venezuela since the announcement of releases by the authorities on January 8, 2026.

Precisely on Saturday, the president of the Penal Forum, Alfredo Romero, denounced that “denying amnesty to Dr. Perkins Rocha is absolutely unjustifiable and constitutes a serious violation of human rights.”

The Venezuelan authorities estimate that more than 7,365 people have obtained “full freedom” thanks to the amnesty law, approved on February 20 and which opens the door to the release of those who have committed crimes since 1999.

The law opens the door to releasing those who have committed crimes since 1999 and for which 1,557 amnesty requests have already been received, according to the Government of Venezuela, although it is applied based on thirteen events included in article 8 of the text, among them the coup d’état of April 2002 against former president Hugo Chávez, the oil strike between 2002 and 2003, the recall referendum against Chávez in 2004, and different anti-government protests in 2007, 2013, 2017 and 2024.