Venezuela: Nicolas Maduro pardoned more than a hundred opponents
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at a press conference in Caracas in March 2020. AP Photo / Matias Delacroix
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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pardoned more than a hundred opponents, including deputies and collaborators of opposition leader Juan Guaido, "in order to promote national reconciliation", to three months of legislative elections that the opposition calls for. to boycott.
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The government uses these pardons "
as a bargaining chip
" to "
legitimize a farce
", that is to say the legislative elections of December 6 that the opposition intends to boycott, reacted Juan Guaido.
"
We do not pardon the innocent or those who have immunity
."
"
A presidential pardon is granted to the citizens mentioned below,
" Communication Minister Jorge Rodriguez said earlier on Monday, reading a list of names during a press conference broadcast by state television.
In this long list of 110 names are detained opponents.
Others are free or in exile.
Guaido's right-hand man released from prison
The most emblematic figure on this list is Roberto Marrero,
Juan Guaido's
right-hand man and chief of staff
.
He was arrested for “terrorism” and jailed in March 2019, two months after Juan Guaido declared himself interim president of Venezuela in January of that year.
Roberto Marrero was released on Monday evening, along with other opponents such as parliamentarians Gilber Caro and Renzo Prieto, fiercely anti-Maduro, or lawyer Antonia Turbay.
Since January 2019, Juan Guaido, whom nearly sixty countries recognized by the United States as interim head of state, has been trying to oust Nicolas Maduro from power.
He believes that the socialist president, who enjoys the support of Cuba, China and Russia, is a “
usurper
” after his “
fraudulent
”
re-election
in the 2018 presidential election.
When a person makes a concession without being obliged to, it necessarily means that he hopes to make a profit from it.
In this case, we are talking about the government of Nicolas Maduro.
What is happening today is that there are several possible responses from the opposition following this announcement by the president.
Guillermo Aveledo, political scientist at the Metropolitan University of Caracas
Hugo Passarello Luna
Juan Guaido is not among those pardoned.
The Venezuelan justice, which the opposition accuses of being under the orders of power, pursues him in more than half a dozen cases.
He is notably accused of having wanted to overthrow Nicolas Maduro
during a call for an uprising of the army - which had no effect - on April 30, 2019
, but he is free to move around at present.
(With agencies)
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Venezuela
Juan Guaido
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Justice
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