Venezuela gives 131 prisoners alternative detention measures

Venezuela's government has given 131 detained prisoners "alternative liberty restriction measures", it said in a statement on Friday, as human rights groups hailed releases of some people they say were being held unjustly or for political reasons.

The people had been detained for their alleged or confirmed participation in crimes, the government said in a statement shared by communications minister Miguel Perez Pirela on X, and were given the alternative measures, which the statement did not detail, as part of the government's Peace and Democratic Coexistence program.

"Not everyone has been released, and they all deserve full freedom; let’s continue to demand this tirelessly until every citizen is reunited with their family," Dinorah Figuera, who is leading an opposition delegation at U.S.-backed negotiations with Venezuela's interim government, wrote on X following Pirela's announcement.

Rights groups including Foro Penal, which provides legal representation for prisoners in Venezuela, as well as the country's Vente Venezuela opposition movement, celebrated a number of the releases via posts on their own social media. Foro Penal said earlier on Friday there are 391 political prisoners in the country, but added in a separate post that it had confirmed 29 releases as of 4:30pm local time.

-Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb/Reuters