Venezuela’s government has taken steps to release some arrested in post-election crackdown but continues to pressure opposition.
The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has released 103 people imprisoned following the country’s contested July election, which the opposition accused Maduro of stealing.
The citizen security service, headed by Minister Diosdado Cabello, announced the prisoner release in a written statement on Thursday.
It explained that Maduro had instructed the government to review “all the cases concerning acts of violence and crimes committed in the framework of the election”.
The 103 prisoners were released during a 72-hour period, from Tuesday through Thursday. The service explained that their release came in addition to “precautionary measures” granted to other detainees on November 26.
Those “precautionary measures” also allowed 225 prisoners to be released but required them to appear before a court once every 30 days, according to the attorney general’s office.
Despite such gestures, the government has refused calls from the opposition and regional leaders to release data that could validate Maduro’s victory.
In the hours after the July 28 election, the Venezuelan electoral authority declared Maduro the winner of a third term, despite pre-election polling that showed him trailing opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez by a seemingly insurmountable margin.
But critics immediately seized upon the fact that officials in several key areas refused to release the paper voting tallies, a standard part of the election process in Venezuela.
Thousands of protesters flooded the streets in cities like the capital Caracas, and the opposition released data it said showed Gonzalez won handily.
However, both the Venezuelan electoral authority and the country’s supreme court — which critics say are stacked with loyalists — confirmed Maduro’s victory. And the government responded with a harsh crackdown on both demonstrators and opposition members.
At least 28 people were killed and nearly 200 injured as security forces clashed with protesters throughout the country. Government numbers indicate about 2,000 people were arrested.
The opposition, which faced arrests and a series of candidate disqualifications even before the voting took place, has continued to face pressure in the time since. Earlier this week, an opposition party named Vente Venezuela said that three of its regional leaders had been detained.
Gonzalez himself fled abroad to Spain in September, where he was granted asylum. “My departure from Caracas was surrounded by acts of pressure, coercion and threats,” he said at the time.
Opposition figures have also sought shelter in Argentina’s embassy in Caracas, after warrants were issued for their arrest after the election.
This week, the government of Argentina once again accused the Maduro government of harassing the opposition group sequestered inside the embassy, which includes four men and two women.
Embassies and consulates are considered “inviolable” spaces under international law, and local law enforcement is generally barred from entering without prior permission.
“The Venezuelan government has not only denied the safe passage that would allow their safe departure but has adopted totally unacceptable harassment actions,” Argentinian Foreign Minister Gerardo Werhein said in remarks to the Organization of American States (OAS) this week.
“The asylum seekers are subjected to water cuts, interruptions in electricity, restrictions on the entry of food and the constant presence of security forces in the vicinity of the diplomatic headquarters.”
