Emotions rise and fall after the release of political prisoners

“I’m glad to be back on the street,” celebrated Alexis José Ochoa, 64 years old, after leaving through the large red gate of the Yare prison, as part of a process of release of 225 political prisoners detained due to the post-election crisis, announced by the Prosecutor’s Office.

A hundred people applaud while waiting for more releases, as the Prosecutor’s Office promised to release 225 of the more than 2,400 detained for the demonstrations against the questioned re-election of President Nicolás Maduro on July 28, which also left 28 dead and 200 injured.

Until noon this Sunday, 131 releases have been confirmed by the NGO Penal Forumleader in the defense of political prisoners.

The day started early. Relatives traveled by bus to the headquarters of four prisons in the center-north of the country: Yare III, Las Crisálidas, in Miranda, and the maximum security prisons enabled by the government to hold detainees known as Tocuyito, in Carabobo. ; and Tocorón, in Aragua.

In these centers there are detainees from all over the country and some family members took up to five hours to arrive due to the long distances from their places of residence.

“He is not a terrorist”

Sitting on the floor waiting for the releases, Nelia Olivares, 55, Ochoa’s sister-in-law, gets up to pray leaning on the prison fence.

Tears fall down her cheeks, she also awaits the release of two nephews. The three were arrested while “They opened their garage” near a protest in Guatire, during the days after the proclamation of Nicolás Maduro as re-elected president amid complaints of fraud by the opposition.

“This is the worst thing that has happened to our family,” he says.

Every time the jail door opens, families have hope, but it’s all about police cars coming and going. At 11:30, a woman screams with joy when she thinks she sees a prisoner. Everyone gets up and runs, but it’s a false alarm.

«It’s a rise and fall of emotions.. It’s like in maternity waiting to give birth,” says Michell Hurtado, aunt of Oscar Escalona, ​​23, detained in Barcelona.

“We don’t want any fuss.”

After a while, a group of women comes out, wives of common prisoners, who were visiting. One of them exclaims, in a contemptuous tone: “They are the families of the guarimberos”as the government calls them.

The agents come out and establish the rules: “We don’t want any commotion (…) Don’t go beyond this point, otherwise we’ll stop everything!”

At 3:00 p.m., officers finally call out the name of a released inmate. The families applaud and the first inmate leaves.

«I feel quite lost because of so much time in confinement. “I feel calm, at peace, God is here,” says Andrés Galea, 31, upon leaving prison while hugging his mother Dorimar Machado.

The three months he was detained were “quite hard. “I had faith that we were going to get out because we are all innocent,” he added.

However, like the others, he will have to appear periodically in court.

Olivares breathed when he found his brother-in-law: “Thank God… We are waiting for the two nephews.” Ochoa says that the police looked for them “today at 5:00 in the morning”, and jokingly the police said: “he is going to be transferred (…) you are free boy!”

“Go home”

The detainees are leaving little by little. Some families are desperate. A woman emphasizes: «They have arrested more than 2,000 people, They are not going to release them all. “Some of us are going to have to cry.”

In front of the Las Crisálidas prison, the scenario is similar. «These four months were horrible, seeing my daughter crying in the corners (…) I told her: Don’t worry, mom is coming“says Junior, a 34-year-old cook, who prefers not to give his full name, and who was waiting for his wife’s release.

About 30 women were released from prison in Las Crisálidas. Relatives reported that the releases in this prison were stopped due to a problem with the ink for printing release tickets. Some went out to buy it.

«The most expensive ink I have ever bought“But if we don’t put it in, we have to wait until tomorrow,” said one of the relatives without identifying themselves.

The director of the prison, however, said: “It is not true that his relatives have not left due to lack of ink, the ink is missing, but I have not received any more release tickets for today.”

“Go home,” he added.