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The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, pardoned more than 40 opposition deputies and political prisoners, including the Portuguese-Venezuelan political scientist Vasco da Costa, who had been detained since April 2018.
Among those pardoned are several collaborators of the opposition leader, Juan Guaidó.
The announcement of the presidential pardon was made by the Minister of Communication and Information of Venezuela, Jorge Rodríguez, through the Venezuelan state television channel (VTV).
“The main intention is that the affairs of Venezuela be resolved by the Venezuelans, in a peaceful, electoral, constitutional and democratic manner,” he said.
Jorge Rodríguez explained that within these parameters there is room for all Venezuelans, “for debate, the discrepancy of ideas, the differences between the way in which each one sees the world.”
“Outside this field is violence, hatred, the perverse intention against the sovereignty of Venezuela,” he stressed, specifying that the releases will take place in the next few hours.
The son of a former Portuguese vice consul in Caracas, Vasco da Costa, 61, was arrested at his home in April 2018 by SEBIN (Venezuelan secret services) agents, accused of promoting abstention in the May presidential elections. 2018.
Vasco da Costa had previously been detained between July 2014 and October 2017. At that time, he was accused of links to a pharmaceutical company that was allegedly involved in plans to manufacture artisanal explosive devices during protests that took place in the first half of 2014 against the Government of the Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro.
According to the sister, the Public Ministry itself admitted that the crime of terrorism with which Vasco da Costa is accused “does not exist”, and questioned why, therefore, the brother has been “detained for more than two years in the worst of Venezuelan prisons “. “.
In recent months, the sister questioned the health of the Portuguese descendant, who in 2019 was an operator of “a tumor in his left eye and was in danger of losing his eye,” which prompted calls to various organizations, including the Secretary General of the United Nations, the Portuguese António Guterres and the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet and even the Portuguese Government.
Among the names of the beneficiaries of the pardon are the opposition deputies Freddy Guevara, Mariela Magallanes, Américo De Grazia, Jorge Millán, José Guerra, Richard Blanco, Tomás Gunanipa, Luis Stefanelli, Carlos Paparoni, Henri Ramos Allup and Miguel Pizarro, to whom the Venezuelan authorities had waived parliamentary immunity.
The opposition politicians Gilber Caro, Renzo Prieto, Aristimuño Miguel, José Marulanda, Rubén Dario Rojas, Arcas Roldan Vicent José, Isabel Moncada, Moreno Nelly, Roberto Marrero, Toro Wilmer, José Daniel Hernández, Juan Andrés Mejía, Rafael Guzmán will be liberated. , Winston Flores, Simón Calzadilla, Edgar Zambrano, Nicmer Evans and Ismael León.
The presidential pardon also includes politicians Carlos García, Torrealba Juan Carlos, Oropeza Kleiver, Roberto Rodríguez, Oscar Barreto, Ángel Betancourt, Eduardo Betancourt, Luis Torres, William Cabaña, Antonio Cisneros and José Santamaría.
According to the Venezuelan minister, those pardoned may freely participate in the legislative elections scheduled for December 6.
Some of the beneficiaries were accused of being involved in “Operation Gideon”, a frustrated “maritime invasion” last May that sought to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro.
The frustrated invasion took place from the sea, from Macuto and Chuao, in the Venezuelan states of La Guaira and Aragua, on May 3 and 4.
The Venezuelan government compared the frustrated maritime invasion of Venezuela to the attempt to invade the “Bay of Pigs” in Cuba in 1961.
81 people were arrested for being involved in Operation Gideon.
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, announced this Sunday that he would begin a week of national dialogue, which would have as its central theme the next legislative elections.
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