Jorge Arreaza: Amnesty Law gives us a new opportunity to do politics in a civilized way

Published at: 28/03/2026 10:17 PM

Jorge Arreaza, president of the Special Commission for Monitoring the Amnesty Law for Democratic Coexistence, said that in Venezuela there is an opposition that has the real will to bring a period of stability and peace to the country at this political moment.

During the interview broadcast by Telesur, and conducted from the Teatro Bolívar, in Caracas, he asserted that Venezuela has been subject to a process of political polarization for many years. “A kind of demonstration or class struggle through politics.”

He recalled that during the Bolivarian Revolution, Commander Hugo Chávez granted amnesties through legal regulations in 2007, while President Nicolás Maduro granted pardons in 2020.

Faced with this, he said that currently the objective of the Amnesty Law is to achieve agreements through the constitution to manage differences, as well as to “break this cycle of political violence and subsequent pardons.”

“We have to rectify that as a people, let everyone rectify what they must rectify, forgive us what needs to be forgiven and begin to live together democratically. There is a law that gives him freedom and that extinguishes the crimes of those who committed them in certain acts,” such as demonstrations that “turned violent or insurrectional, post-electoral processes,” he said.

Arreaza reiterated that these legal regulations give us the opportunity to shake hands, “even to embrace each other despite our differences and to be able to go through the new political moments, as described by the president in charge, Delcy Rodríguez.”

With the above-mentioned law, “the criminal offense is extinguished, criminal records are erased from police records, whatever you have done, except for the exclusions of very serious crimes that the law contemplates, we can continue and give ourselves a new opportunity to do politics in a civilized manner”.

He added that in this new phase, the State will correct what it must correct, as will the political factors of the opposition and “understand that we have to unite. For us, the unity of the Bolivarian Revolution is an essential principle.”

Balance of amnesties

Deputy Arreaza reported that to date 13,685 requests have been received, some of which were repeated and after a cleansing process, 11,401 people were reached.

In detail, he said that, of that figure, 8,073 people have been answered with full freedom; 260 of them were behind bars. “We have the rest, which are 7,813 who since 2014, 2013, 2017, were on a filing regime, they were free, they were not behind bars, but they had to appear before a court every 30 days, every two months, every 15 days, depending on the case, and that is why it is worth, in some cases, coming to Caracas. They are now fully free, without crime,” he explained.

He said that the Special Commission is informed of more than 100 cases of people who are outside the country who have requested amnesty through a proxy.

“We are already in a time when the judges in each case have analyzed and given their answer. Hopefully, the vast majority of that response actually fall within the cases established by law and can return to the country. All their rights will be respected, they cannot be arrested and they will be given their benefit,” he added in the interview.

He argued that there are cases that were in the most extreme opposition in the country that have expressed their “will to do politics through constitutional means, have recognized their mistakes and have also criticized very strongly the Government and our proposal for a country, but who want to come and do politics in peace”.

Mazo News Team