Venezuela amnesty law excludes military detainees and relatives

Venezuela’s new amnesty law has entered into force, and the government says more than 300 prisoners will be released this weekend. But the text carves out large categories of detainees—especially military personnel and, in many cases, their relatives—leaving hundreds outside the measure, according to El País.

The structure is narrow by design. The law defines a review period from 1999 to February 22, 2026, yet it lists only 13 specific “situations” over 14 years, with many inclusions tied to brief protest windows. Alfredo Romero of the NGO Foro Penal told El País that the specificity functions as exclusion: union leaders prosecuted for labour disputes, people charged with “incitement to hatred” for social-media speech, and those caught up in military cases are among the main groups left out.

The military carve-out is the clearest signal of what the state is protecting. El País reports 185 military personnel imprisoned, and says relatives and close associates have also been arbitrarily detained as pressure, bringing the total excluded to nearly 400 people. One emblematic case is Josnar Baduel, sentenced to 30 years over the failed 2020 “Operation Gideon” incursion. His sister, journalist Andreina Baduel, described to El País a two-by-two-metre cell in Rodeo 1 and alleged torture and untreated injuries. The government has previously freed US-linked defendants from the same episode through prisoner swaps with Washington, but the remaining military cases are walled off from the new amnesty.

That selectivity turns amnesty into a tool rather than a settlement. Releasing some prisoners can lower international pressure, reduce the cost of prison management, and create a fresh pool of people under “precautionary measures” who remain legally vulnerable. Keeping military defendants—and family members swept up alongside them—maintains leverage over the one institution that can threaten regime continuity. It also preserves bargaining chips for future negotiations, whether with domestic opposition figures or foreign governments seeking releases.

Courts have already begun receiving petitions, according to lawmaker Jorge Arreaza, who heads the commission reviewing cases. The law’s first weekend of releases will show who the state considers disposable—and who it still considers insurance.