CARACAS:

More than 200 Venezuelan political prisoners launched a hunger strike on Sunday to demand their release under a new amnesty law that excludes many of them.

The amnesty was approved by Congress on Thursday as part of a wave of reforms encouraged by the United States after it ousted and captured former president Nicolas Maduro on January 3.

The hunger strike began Friday night at the Rodeo I prison on the outskirts of Caracas. Inmates complained they would not benefit from the law because it excludes cases involving the military, which are the most common ones at that facility.

“Approximately 214 people in total, including Venezuelans and foreigners, are on hunger strike,” said Yalitza Garcia, mother-in-law of a prisoner named Nahuel Agustin Gallo, an Argentine police officer accused of terrorism, another category that is excluded.

“They decided Friday to go on hunger strike because of the scope of the amnesty law, which excludes many of them,” said Shakira Ibarreto, daughter of a policeman arrested in 2024.

Not all the inmates at this prison are joining the hunger strike, the relatives said.

The amnesty law was engineered by interim leader Delcy Rodriguez under pressure from Washington after US commandos attacked Venezuela on January 3, snatched Maduro and his wife and took them to the United States for trial on drug trafficking charges.

Opposition figures have criticized the new legislation, which appears to include carve-outs for some offenses previously used by authorities to target Maduro’s political opponents.