CARACAS — Renowned Venezuelan human rights activist Javier Tarazona was freed on Sunday after more than four years in prison on charges including terrorism and treason, his brother told AFP.

 

"Javier is free at last," Rafael Tarazona told AFP of the latest step by interim president Delcy Rodriguez to free prisoners under pressure from the United States after it ousted Nicolas Maduro on January 3.

 

He is one of Venezuela's most prominent jailed dissidents. Amnesty International and other human rights groups had been calling for his release.

 

He was held in a notorious prison called the Helicoide, which Rodriguez said this week she would close as part of a general amnesty.

 

The rights group Foro Penal says there are still 711 political prisoners in Venezuela.

 

The government has started to release some, but relatives of these detainees and rights groups say the process is too slow. The amnesty is expected to speed things up.

Tarazona, director of the rights NGO Fundaredes, has been imprisoned since July 2021. Besides treason and terrorism he was accused of incitement to hatred.

 

Tarazona is known for his role in reporting clashes between military forces and guerrilla groups along the porous 2,000-kilometre Colombia-Venezuela border.

 

Fundaredes accused the Maduro government of harbouring Colombian guerrilla leaders in Venezuela.

 

US forces attacked Venezuela on January 3, capturing Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores and taking them to New York for trial on US-issued drug trafficking charges.

 

Trump says he is now running Venezuela and has allowed Rodriguez to be interim leader so long as she toes Washington's line -- in particular granting US access to Venezuela's vast oil reserves.

 

Rodriguez has quickly moved in less than four weeks in power to overhaul Venezuelan society in ways sought by the United States.