Venezuela rights groups verify 39 prison releases; Foro names 20 political cases

• JEP reported that it had verified 39 people leaving prisons across Venezuela.
• Seventeen were not on JEP’s political-prisoner register, which uses its own criteria for classifying cases.
• Foro Penal published 20 names, with arrest dates and last known detention centres.
• The releases came hours after government-opposition talks ended; the announced agenda covered media freedom and judicial reform.¹²³

The two totals describe different checks, not a single reconciled list. JEP’s count rose from 29 to 39 as it continued verifying departures. It said 17 people were not in its register because of the criteria it uses to classify cases by the charges filed. JEP said that distinction did not diminish the significance of those cases. No published comparison establishes how many of the 22 people on JEP’s register are among Foro Penal’s 20 named cases.¹

Foro Penal’s list includes Franks Cabañas, detained in 2017, and Miguel Castillo Cedeño, detained in 2019. It gives each person’s last known place of detention and arrest date. The organisation said it was continuing to verify other reported cases and their judicial status.²

The releases began overnight on 25–26 September, after the second round of talks between government and opposition delegations concluded in Caracas. The talks, which began on 18 September, were led by National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez for the government and Dinorah Figuera for the opposition. Their announced agenda covered freedom of expression and changes to the judicial system; reporting on the agreements did not identify a prisoner-release deal.³⁴

That timing does not establish that the talks produced the releases. EFE reported that the government had said prisoner releases were not a subject discussed at the negotiating table.³

The organisations’ reports establish that people left prison; they do not establish that their cases were dismissed or any judicial restrictions lifted. Foro Penal said it was still checking the legal status of other citizens.²

Footnotes

1. El Diario, “JEP confirma 39 excarcelaciones y aclara que 17 liberados no estaban en su registro de presos políticos”. ↩ ↩²

2. Foro Penal, “Foro Penal verifica la excarcelación de 20 presos políticos”. ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Agencia EFE, “ONG reportan decenas de excarcelaciones en Venezuela, horas después del diálogo”. ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Agencia EFE, report on the opening of the second round of talks; EL PAÍS, report on the talks’ announced agreements. ↩