Andean Group - March 2026

With the signing into law of an amnesty bill for political prisoners on 19 February, Venezuela’s new government has taken an important step towards easing the repression that prevailed under former president Nicolás Maduro (2013-2026). However, the law has clear limitations which could see many political prisoners remain behind bars. The message from the authorities seems to be that, whilst Venezuela may be entering “a new political moment” as was promised by President Delcy Rodríguez on 14 January, democratic reform will come slowly if it comes at all.

Certainly, Venezuela’s human rights situation has improved following the passage of the bill. Of the 529 political prisoners who remained as of 23 February, as counted by the opposition coalition Plataforma Unitaria Democrática (PUD), many more can expect to be released, continuing a process which at that point had already seen 583 political prisoners released since 8 January. This has been the main concession to the opposition from President Rodríguez’s administration, which, propped up by Washington following the US capture of Maduro on 3 January, has claimed to be committed to a process of political reform.

However, the detail of the amnesty legislation sends a more mixed signal. Named the ‘Amnesty Law for Democratic Coexistence’, it contains no mention of ‘political prisoners’. This conforms with the government’s claim that there are no political prisoners in Venezuela, but rather inmates who were convicted of offences, such as alleged violence or hate speech, during a volatile period of high political tensions.

Rather than granting a sweeping general amnesty covering the whole 27-year period since the ascension of former president Hugo Chávez (1999-2013), as was initially indicated by Rodríguez, the law instead applies to 13 specific periods. These span from April 2002, when a military coup was unsuccessfully launched against Chávez, to 2025, when there were “protests and politically motivated acts of violence which took place in the context of regional and national assembly elections”.

In between these bookends, the law covers flashpoints including anti-government protests; the “actions of the national assembly which was installed for the 2016-2021 period” – a period which includes the attempt by exiled former national assembly president Juan Guaidó to declare himself Venezuela’s legitimate president in 2019; and events related to “strikes and business and oil sabotage” from 2002-2003.

An imperfect amnesty

The PUD and Venezuelan NGOs including Foro Penal and Provea have highlighted extensive concerns with the law. At a PUD press conference on 23 February, Delsa Solórzano, the president of the Encuentro Ciudadano party, said that the amnesty law perpetuates the “revolving door” of repression that has previously seen the authorities release political prisoners in a show of apparent goodwill, before launching a renewed crackdown on dissent [SSR-25-08].

Chief among the PUD’s concerns is the fact that amnesties will not be granted automatically and will instead be analysed on a case-by-case basis by the politicised judicial system. In addition, bans on holding public office will not be overturned, there will be no reparations for the harm suffered by political prisoners, and there are no guarantees for the safe return of exiles living outside the country.

The law details specific crimes which are not covered by amnesties, which will bar the release of some prisoners. Of these, perhaps the most significant is the exclusion of “people who have been or could be tried or convicted for promoting, instigating, soliciting, invoking, supporting, facilitating, financing, or participating in armed actions or the use of force against the people, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Venezuela, on behalf of foreign states, corporations, or persons”. This may apply to those within the opposition, notably the PUD’s leader María Corina Machado, who welcomed the US military raid on Caracas to seize Maduro.

Military personnel, who make up a significant number of political prisoners, are not set to benefit from the new legislation. According to Foro Penal, there were 185 military political prisoners being held in Venezuela as of 9 February. Solórzano highlighted at the 23 February press conference that the law does not grant amnesties for people convicted by military tribunals. Soldiers accused of involvement in plots against Maduro and Chávez could additionally be barred from the amnesties due to accusations that they colluded with a foreign power, given that the authorities routinely claim that such plots are planned from abroad.

Foro Penal’s director, Alfredo Romero, was cited in a 23 February article by Spanish newspaper El País as saying that “soldiers and their families are being heavily excluded and this is a great, unconstitutional exclusion, particularly at a time when we’re talking about national coexistence”. Romero said that, in addition to the 185 soldiers who were behind bars at the time of writing, families of imprisoned military personnel often face judicial harassment including arbitrary arrests. This, Romero said, means that as many as 400 members of the wider military community could be excluded from the amnesty process.

Those accused of corruption offences are also barred from amnesties – a potential concern given that the authorities have routinely accused opposition figures of money laundering as part of a wider campaign to silence dissent.

Despite their many concerns, opposition lawmakers voted in favour of the amnesty bill during two votes on 5 and 19 February, in which it received unanimous support. The legislation would easily have been passed without the support of the small ‘Libertad’ contingent of opposition lawmakers in the government-controlled national assembly. However, Nora Bracho, a deputy for Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT), said that the opposition bloc had decided to back the law despite its faults due to “commitment to the freedom of political prisoners and those who have been persecuted”. The bill was then signed into law immediately by President Rodríguez.

• Libertad vs the PUD

​The Libertad faction of the opposition, which has a small presence in the national assembly and is led by Henrique Capriles Radonski, broke away from the main PUD coalition in the run-up to the May 2025 legislative and regional elections after it defied the PUD’s call for a boycott. The Libertad grouping has been more willing to engage with the Rodríguez administration than the PUD. As well as voting in favour of the amnesty law, Libertad has also joined a dialogue process with the new government. The PUD is not involved in those talks. On 5 February deputy Stalin González justified Libertad’s decision to engage with the government, saying that “we know that many Venezuelans don’t trust these processes… but this is a peaceful way to guarantee solutions”. 

An emboldened public takes to the streets

      In a sign that fear is dissipating in the wake of Maduro’s downfall, on 12 February Venezuela saw its first large-scale anti-government protests since January 2025. The protests, led by student groups, took place in numerous cities including the capital Caracas and numerous cities across the country, including, in western Venezuela, Maracaibo, the state capital of Zulia; Barquisimeto, the capital of Lara; San Cristóbal, the capital of Táchira; and the eponymous state capital of Mérida. Demonstrators also marched in Ciudad Guayana, the largest city in the eastern state of Bolívar; and Maracay, the capital of the north-central state of Aragua.

      The protests, which were peaceful and were not impeded by the security forces, were held to demand the release of all political prisoners. With the amnesty bill now having been approved, a key test will be whether demonstrators again take to the streets to demand the convening of elections. The authorities and the US government continue to downplay the prospect of elections in the near-term, saying that a period of stabilisation is needed first.

Elections not expected any time soon

National assembly president Jorge Rodríguez, who is the brother of President Rodríguez, gave an interview to US news network Newsmax on 9 February in which he played down the prospect of elections taking place in the near-term. Asked whether elections would be held in the next five years, he replied that “the only thing I can say is that there will not be an election in this immediate period of time” during which the government would instead focus on “stabilisation”.