When journalist Ramón de Jesús Centeno Navas was imprisoned at the hands of Venezuelan authorities four years ago, he walked into the jail on crutches – injured, but still able to walk.
He was released from prison last month, confined to a wheelchair – the consequences, he says, of lack of treatment for injuries he sustained in a traffic accident he was recovering from at the time of his arrest.
Ever since Nicolás Maduro was whisked from power by US forces last month, Venezuela has been gradually releasing political prisoners who have been behind bars for years in many cases.
Centeno is one of an estimated 540 or more political detainees – including around 24 journalists – to come out of the shadows and regain their freedom against the backdrop of change considered unthinkable until recently, according to figures compiled by human rights groups.
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A month ago, the president of the country’s national assembly, Jorge Rodríguez – brother of interim president Delcy Rodríguez – announced the release of political prisoners as a “unilateral gesture of peace”.
Last week, the government enacted an amnesty for involvement in political protests and “violent actions” during specific months since 2002, a period of revolutionary socialist rule which began with the election of the late populist leader, Hugo Chávez in 1999.
The government has claimed nearly 2,200 people have been released from Venezuelan jails or had other legal restrictions withdrawn since the start of the new amnesty law.
The law, however, has been critiqued by human rights organisations which say it falls short of offering relief for hundreds of political prisoners. People released from jail in Venezuela, for example, can be held on house arrest or required to regularly report to police or courts for a specific period.
The law does not revoke public office bans given for political reasons or cancel sanctions against media outlets. It also requires those living abroad who are facing charges to appear in person in Venezuela to have their amnesty granted.
The government has denied jailing political prisoners and says those jailed have committed crimes.
In a sign of changing times, Centeno recently joined hundreds of people at a pro-democracy demonstration at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas.
“I want to be a protagonist of the hearts of Venezuelan mothers who are here today, to be a voice that joins the cry for freedom,” he said. “Hopefully, the amnesty law works out to move things forwards ... and free political prisoners.”
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Centeno’s story, and that of his newspaper, captures both the level of repression and the hostile climate facing journalists working in Venezuela under the Maduro regime.
He was working as a reporter for the pro-government newspaper Últimas Noticias, a national tabloid, at the time of his arrest. The newspaper endured even as restrictions on newsprint wiped out many other print outlets – the consequence of a government law that only the state could import and distribute newsprint.
Other tools of censorship included the revocation of TV and radio licenses and the acquisition of media outlets by pro-government private capital, say human rights groups, as well as the use of antiterrorism and hate speech laws to detain journalists.
Últimas Noticias, for example, had maintained a more critical editorial line until it was acquired in 2012 by a London-based asset management company. The final beneficiaries of the purchase were never made public.
In early 2022, Centeno interviewed a pro-government congressman who had been arrested for alleged involvement in a drug trafficking operation the regime called Iron Hand.
The article, titled “How narco-politics took over parliament”, never made it to print. On February 2nd, 2022, Centeno was arrested following an anonymous tip.
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He was recovering from hip and femur surgery after a car accident at the time of his arrest
Venezuela’s professional organisations, however, did not forget him. Last July, for example, the National Union of Press Workers published letters from Centeno, in which he described his deteriorating physical and emotional state: “If anyone is listening out there, please ... bring me my grandfather’s blessing.”
Centeno was detained at the National Guard’s Anti-Drug Command, just metres away from El Helcoide, the notorious Caracas prison.
Authorities, he says, repeatedly refused humanitarian measures. While he was eventually transferred to a hospital in May 2023, he was returned to prison.
On January 14th last, just 11 days after Maduro’s removal from power, Centeno was released. His mother, who had made multiple appeals for him to be allowed out on humanitarian grounds, eventually got to see her son released. She died of a stroke shortly afterwards.
Centeno is struggling to come to terms with what has happened to him.
“I want to understand why they did this to me. I believe in forgiveness with justice and remembrance. I can hug you, but I want you to remember what you did to me,” he told El País, in an interview.
Now, Centeno is determined to campaign to free all remaining political detainees.
“I went in on crutches and came out in a wheelchair, with a mother I lost ten days ago,” he told reporters, at last week’s pro-democracy protest. “It is very difficult, but this is a fight for the reconstruction of what is to come.”
