WORLD NEWS JANUARY 27, 2019 / 9:24 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

Venezuelan victims demand punishment for abuses, despite amnesty plan

Mayela Armas
4 MIN READ

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s self-proclaimed interim president and opposition leader Juan Guaido and his supporters thrust pamphlets offering amnesty into the hands of soldiers on Sunday, part of a strategy to win over allies of President Nicolas Maduro to a transitional government.

The reaction from the soldiers in the glare of TV cameras was, predictably, rejection. Some tore up or set fire to the paper, which promised no civil or criminal retribution for acts committed under Maduro’s government, considered illegitimate by the United States, Canada and most Latin American nations.

While Guaido is unlikely to give up on a plan that political strategists have long argued will be an essential part of any attempt to peel military support away from the Maduro government, concerns are also emerging from human rights groups and victims of serious abuses.

“Amnesty is good as long as it is not for human rights violators,” said Bonny de Simonovis, wife of Ivan Simonovis, a police chief arrested in 2002 and who is under house arrest.

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