The Judicial Revolution Commission and the Program for Coexistence and Peace will present the law to the National Assembly
EFE (via 14ymedio), Caracas, 30 January 2026 — Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, proposed a general amnesty law on Friday to release political prisoners who have been detained from 1999 to the present, a period that covers the Chavista governments.
“I want to announce that we have decided to promote a general amnesty law that covers the entire period of political violence from 1999 to the present,” Rodríguez said at the opening ceremony of the judicial year at the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).
The Chavista leader instructed the Judicial Revolution Commission and the Program for Coexistence and Peace to present the law to the National Assembly (AN, Parlamento) in the “coming hours,” as well as to provide “maximum collaboration” to the legislative body for its approval.
“May it be a law that serves to repair the wounds left by political confrontation, by violence, by extremism, that serves to redirect justice in our country and that serves to redirect coexistence among Venezuelans,” she added.
“I want to announce that we have decided to promote a general amnesty law that covers the entire period of political violence from 1999 to the present.”
The Chavista leader asked the country’s political prisoners, including those who have already been released, to “not allow revenge, retaliation, or hatred to prevail.”
Rodríguez indicated that this proposed law excludes those prosecuted or convicted for homicide, drug trafficking, and human rights violations.
Several NGOs have been calling for a general amnesty for all political prisoners for years, simultaneously submitting various draft laws. The latest was proposed last Tuesday by the Surgentes organization and the Mothers for Truth Committee.
The text from the NGO and the Committee included 12 articles and proposed amnesty for “all those people who have been persecuted, social activists, journalists, members of victims’ committees, military personnel and people persecuted or deprived of their liberty in the context of post-election mobilizations.”
Earlier this month, a parliamentary faction in Venezuela also proposed an amnesty law to, it argued, bring “peace of mind” to the families of people “who are unjustly detained.”
“May it be a law that serves to heal the wounds left by political confrontation, by violence, by extremism, that serves to restore justice in our country.”
Currently, according to the NGO Foro Penal, there are 711 political prisoners, but the Venezuelan government denied that there were people detained in the country for these reasons and stated that those detained committed crimes, mostly related to terrorism.
The last time an amnesty law was enacted in Venezuela was in December 2007, when the late President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) pardoned people involved in the 2002 coup against him.
In 2016, Parliament, then controlled by the opposition, passed an amnesty law, which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), which is aligned with Chavismo, and so the law could never be applied.
In August 2020, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro granted, by decree, 110 pardons to opposition members, union leaders, and social actors accused of various crimes, ahead of legislative elections held in December of that year, an event that the majority of the opposition did not attend.
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