Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge RodrĂguez giving statements to the press, February 21, 2026. Photo: Wilmer Errades/Ăšltimas Noticias.
The president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Deputy Jorge RodrĂguez, reported this Saturday that 1,557 amnesty applications have been received since the Amnesty Law was approved and enacted last Thursday. “These are being processed immediately, and right at this moment hundreds of people deprived of their liberty are being released under the Amnesty Law,” he said.
“Until yesterday we received 405 requests from prisoners. As of today, we have received 1,152 new requests, bringing the total to 1,557, which are being addressed immediately, and at this moment hundreds of releases are already taking place,” he reported.
The announcement was made on Saturday, February 21, during RodrĂguez’s participation in the consultation process for the Red Cross Law that took place on AndrĂ©s Bello Avenue in Caracas.
RodrĂguez also reported that the Amnesty Law Monitoring Commission is addressing the requests of 11,000 people who were under alternative measures, such as house arrest.
“We have, and it is contemplated in the law, 11,000 people who received alternative measures to imprisonment from the Venezuelan justice system; that is, they were deprived of their liberty, but they are under a reporting regime or are under house arrest, and the law stipulates that these alternative measures are part of the law so that people can enjoy freedom,” he explained. “Therefore, we are addressing the request of more than 11,000 people who were under an alternative regime to deprivation of liberty, and those 11,000 people willalsondeed be covered by the Monitoring Committee.”
He reiterated the need for dialogue to construct peace. “It is the contribution to a peace that we hope will be lasting,” he said. “A peace where we all respect each other. A peace where we can discuss differences in all areas without resorting to hatred, polarization, or any kind of abuse.”
In this regard, he highlighted that far-right operatorss are beginning to pervert the scope of the law, “lying, insulting, using money to hire influencers. We will not let that go unpunished. We already know them, we already know their practices, and this law is precisely to put an end to those practices, to put an end to those malicious intentions of those who led the country to one of the greatest tragedies it has ever suffered,” he said in reference to the January 3 US military bombing of Venezuela.
RodrĂguez urged people not to fall for provocations and insisted that the best path to peace is dialogue, “and this amnesty law is a great first step toward achieving that peace.”
Responding to a journalist’s question about the victims of far-right violence, the National Assembly president highlighted Article 12 of the Amnesty Law, which addresses the recognition and support for the victims. “I believe that this law not only recognizes the victims listed in its articles, but also establishes a step to prevent repetitions of the mistakes of the past,” he remarked. “The events are identified in the law. And those events represent a journey through the recent history of Venezuela over the last 20 years. I believe that it sends a powerful message to everyone: that we can live, work, and grow politically within the framework established by the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”
“There is no political process or government in the history of this country that has attended to the victims of political violence more than the Bolivarian government, of Commander Hugo Chávez, of President Nicolás Maduro, and of Acting President Delcy RodrĂguez,” he added.
In this regard, he referred to how people were murdered and disappeared during the governments of the Fourth Republic. “Who took care of the victims then?” he asked. “Who attended to the spouses of the disappeared? Who attended to the children of those murdered in the basements of the military intelligence directorate? Who helped the victims of the massacres of February 27-28, and March 1-2, 1989? It was precisely the Bolivarian Revolution and the government of Commander Chávez that finally brought attention to the victims of the Caracazo of February 27, where more than 4,000 people were murdered and thrown into mass graves.”
Venezuela’s Amnesty Law for Democratic Coexistence (Full Translation)
Deputy RodrĂguez reiterated his call to extremist sectors to cease their efforts in calling for sanctions and aggression against Venezuela. “On the contrary,” he said, “the message of the Amnesty Law is reconciliation.”
“Enough with calling for sanctions and aggression against the country, enough with the idea that if you lose an election, then you go out into the streets to burn, to murder, to destroy. Enough with the insults, enough with the bullying, enough with financing campaigns to morally assassinate people and then to physically attack them,” he emphasized.
(Ultimas Noticias) by Carlos Eduardo Sánchez
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SC
