The United States condemns the poor conditions of “political prisoners” in Venezuela

This Tuesday, the US State Department denounced in its annual report on human rights that the government of Nicolas Maduro is holding “hundreds” of prisoners in Venezuela for political reasons, many of whom are in “critical” conditions.

In the document relating to 2021, the United States cited figures from Foro Penal that there were 260 political prisoners in the country last October, 50 of whom were “in critical health conditions”.

He stressed that Maduro’s government “allowed some opposition candidates to participate” in the regional elections in November, but that “there were no conditions for free and fair elections.”

He also stated that negotiations between the executive branch and the opposition, which took place in Mexico between August and September, allowed the return of some “exile figures” to the country.

“Despite these changes, the Maduro regime continued to imprison hundreds of people for political reasons and prevent hundreds of opposition candidates from exercising all their rights to run,” he criticized.

The document also noted that members of Venezuela’s security forces “committed numerous violations” of human rights and that “the Maduro regime has not taken any action to identify or investigate these violations.”

Last month, two of the 10 Americans imprisoned in Venezuela were released after a delegation of US officials traveled to Caracas to meet with Maduro government authorities.