A total of 131 Venezuelan political prisoners, detained after the presidential elections of July 28, have been released by the authorities since Saturday, according to the non-governmental organization (NGO) Penal Forum.
After the releases, 1,700 people remain detained in the country for political reasons, according to the same source.
"At the FP, we have registered and verified 131 releases, carried out by reviewing measures requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office", announced the director of the NGO, Alfredo Romero, on his X account.
On the same social network, Romero explains that the released prisoners will appear in court this Monday, "so that alternative measures to prison can be applied to them".
"For the majority of them, there is no full freedom and the legal proceedings are ongoing", he stresses.
According to the Penal Forum, 26 adult men were released from the Yare 3 prison, with more than 200 political prisoners still being held there.
On the other hand, more than 86 men, all adults, were released from the Tocorón penitentiary, and more than 800 people remain in detention.
There were also releases in the prisons of La Guaira, Tocuyito and the La Crisálida Training Center for Female Inmates.
In the meantime, the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners reported on social media that the release orders for several detainees in Tocuyito had not yet arrived.
"Mothers and relatives are waiting for the release of their political prisoners in Tocuyito. Yesterday [Saturday], they were informed that more than 80 prisoners would be released and today they are being denied the release notices. Prison officials say that the Ministry of Popular Power for the Penitentiary Service has not yet issued them," X reported.
The releases began on Saturday, a day after the Public Prosecutor's Office announced that it would review the cases of 225 of the 2,400 people who were detained following protests against the results of the July 28 presidential election in which Nicolás Maduro was declared re-elected, and which the opposition is contesting.
On November 12, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro asked local authorities to review the judicial processes of teenagers detained in the protests following the July 28 presidential election, admitting the possibility that some kind of procedural error had occurred.
Venezuela held presidential elections on July 28, after which the National Electoral Council (CNE) attributed the victory to the country's current President, Nicolás Maduro, with just over 51% of the vote, while the opposition claims that its candidate, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, obtained almost 70% of the vote.
The Venezuelan opposition and many countries have denounced electoral fraud and demanded that the voting records be presented for independent verification.
The election results were contested in the streets, with demonstrations repressed by security forces, with authorities recording more than 2,400 arrests, 27 deaths and 192 injuries.
