Venezuela frees two foes as Maduro consolidates power

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s government has released two prominent opposition activists it has held for more than a year without trial, one of them a Spanish citizen, as President Nicolas Maduro looks to ease international pressure following months of unrest.

Yon Goicoechea and Delson Guarate were freed late Friday night from a Caracas jail, but continue to be bound by restrictions on their movement and speech, according to lawyers’ co-op Foro Penal.

“I’m free,” Guarate wrote in a concise message posted on his Twitter account.

Maduro’s government has been releasing about 15 jailed opponents per week since consolidating its power after the election of a constitutional assembly in July, according to Foro Penal.

Opposition leaders backed by several foreign governments have been demanding for more than a year the release of political prisoners as a pre-condition for talks with the government. But Alfredo Romero, head of Foro Penal, said the latest releases are a face-saving measure by Maduro aimed at appeasing his foreign critics now that the protest movement blamed for more than 120 deaths has subsided.

Romero said the number of jailed activists in Venezuela had barely surpassed 100 when Maduro took office in 2013, but that number skyrocketed to 676 at the height of anti-government protests against the constitutional assembly in July.

After the latest releases, around 360 people remain jailed, he said.

“This isn’t a negotiation with the opposition about getting something in return,” said Romero. “It’s about the high political cost of having such an elevated number of political prisoners.” There was no immediate reaction from the government.

But authorities have long denied they are keeping prisoners of conscience and have accused its opponents of working with the U.S. to sabotage Venezuela’s economy and pave the way for the socialist leader’s removal in a coup. In releasing its opponents, the government said it wants to create conditions for dialogue and reconciliation under the authority of the constitutional assembly, which is made up entirely of government supporters after the opposition boycotted elections to choose its delegates.