MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuelan gov't releases 179 detainees from July's incidents

The opposition used these people “as if they were cannon fodder,” Saab maintained

Venezuelan authorities announced Monday the release of 179 people who were detained in the riots that ensued the controversial July 28 elections which both President Nicolás Maduro and opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia claimed to have won.

Caracas' Public Prosecutor's Office said in a press release that, between Dec. 10 and 14, it had reviewed these defendants' cases and acquiesced to the release by the Judiciary. “These releases are added to the 354 measures previously requested and agreed, for a total of 533, carried out within the framework of the due process guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic,” it was explained.

The Prosecutor's Office thus “reaffirms its commitment to Peace, Justice and Human Rights,” the document went on.

Last week, Attorney General Tarek William Saab spoke about contacts with relatives of many detainees who claimed that their loved ones had been used by the opposition. “The testimony of the relatives is that they do not wish to be misused by extremist political factors that were responsible” for the violent events that left 28 dead, 195 wounded, and material damages to some 500 private and public institutions, Saab underlined while insisting that the challengers to Maduro's regime had used these people “as if they were cannon fodder.”

Saab also pointed out that these releases were the result of a thorough review by Venezuela's authorities of each case and denied any involvement of the “wrongly named Non-Governmental Organizations.”

Earlier this month, Saab also mentioned the opposition was trying to pass on the murderers of the violent days as political prisoners and insisted no complaint had been filed against the State's Security Forces for any of the killings, which were - in his words - committed by “the terrorist groups, previously paid, who did not mind killing at will.”

Saab also showed evidence and testimonies of survivors, based on which it was the duty of his office to arrest and prosecute those who intend to sow chaos and terrorism.