Venezuela releases dozens of detainees

13/12/2024 6:10

Venezuelan authorities said

on Thursday that they have released 103 people this week who had

been arrested amid anti-government protests following last

July's contested presidential election.



President Nicolas Maduro was proclaimed the winner of the

July 28 vote by the government-aligned electoral authority and

supreme court even though both bodies have refused to release

ballot-box level voting records to back up the claim. Raucous

street protests erupted hours after the initial claim that

Maduro had won.



Shortly after the election, the opposition uploaded to a

website thousands of scanned copies of voting machine receipts

their observers obtained that they say prove their candidate,

Edmundo Gonzalez, won a landslide victory.



Maduro had said that some 2,000 people were arrested in

the post-election protests.



Earlier this week, opposition political party Vente

Venezuela, said three of its regional leaders had been arrested.



The party is led by the South American country's most

prominent opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado. Last January,

the country's top court ratified a block to her own plans to run

for president.



The government's citizen security office announced that

this week's prisoner release followed a request by Maduro "to

review all the cases concerning acts of violence and crimes

committed in the framework of the election," according to a

statement read on state television.



Last month, the Attorney General's Office said 225

detainees were granted "freedom measures." But most of them must

appear in court every 30 days, which rights groups say does not

constitute full freedom.



The protests left 28 people dead and almost 200 injured

while some 500 properties were destroyed, including schools and

health centers, according to Attorney General Tarek Saab.