Venezuelan opposition chief and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado speaks onstage throughout an occasion to satisfy with members of Venezuela’s neighborhood residing in Chile, in Santiago, Chile.
| Photograph Credit score: Reuters
Venezuelan opposition chief Maria Corina Machado on Saturday (March 14, 2026) accused the Caracas authorities of “selective justice” below its amnesty program, saying her personal lawyer had but to be launched.
The amnesty legislation was handed by interim chief Delcy Rodriguez below stress from Washington after U.S. forces captured former chief Nicolas Maduro in January and took him to New York to face drug trafficking prices.
It goals to show the web page on practically three many years of state repression, and mark an early milestone within the post-Maduro transition.
However Ms. Machado, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize final 12 months, stated her shut ally and lawyer Perkins Rocha has been in custody since August 2024, when scores of individuals have been arrested after Mr. Maduro’s contested re-election.
Mr. Rocha, 63, stays below home arrest and is required to report in to authorities each three hours. His amnesty request has been denied, Ms. Machado posted on X.
“To selectively deny amnesty is repression. The regime led by Delcy Rodriguez needs to lengthen the fear by breaking the morale of these combating for democracy and freedom in Venezuela,” she wrote.
“Perkins Rocha and all political prisoners have to be absolutely launched. Not ex-prisoners, not defendants: FREE!”
NGOs have additionally criticized the amnesty legislation as insufficent and being unfairly utilized.
The legislation covers folks detained in occasions equivalent to a failed 2002 coup in opposition to ex-leader Hugo Chavez and varied cycles of protests between 2004 and 2024, in addition to for criticism posted on social media or messaging companies.
The federal government claims that greater than 7,000 folks have been granted full freedom, together with prisoners in jail and people on parole.
The NGO Foro Penal stated this month that whereas 690 political prisoners had been launched since Mr. Maduro’s ouster, round 500 stay behind bars.
Revealed – March 15, 2026 07:59 am IST