CARACAS (Venezuela): The Venezuelan government has released 103 people who were imprisoned following the country’s disputed July presidential election, which the opposition accused President Nicolas Maduro of stealing, sparking widespread protests and arrests, Al Jazeera reported.
According to the citizen security service, the release of prisoners was announced in a written statement on Thursday.
The statement 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 over a 72-hour period, from Tuesday to Thursday. This move comes in addition to “precautionary measures” granted to other detainees on November 26, as per Al Jazeera.
According to the attorney general’s office, those “precautionary measures” also allowed 225 prisoners to be released but required them to appear before a court once every 30 days.
In the July presidential election, Venezuela’s electoral authority declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner of a third term. This announcement came despite pre-election polls indicating that Maduro trailed opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez by a significant margin.
According to Al Jazeera, critics were quick to point out that officials in several key areas refused to release the paper voting tallies, a standard part of the election process in Venezuela. This lack of transparency has fueled suspicions of electoral fraud and has led to widespread protests across the country.
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. (ANI)